Gender, Technology and Development

ISSN: 0971-8524 (Print) 0973-0656 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rgtd20

A new era for women? Some reflections on blind

spots of ICT-based development projects for
women’s entrepreneurship and empowerment

Irem Güney-Frahm

To cite this article: Irem Güney-Frahm (2018): A new era for women? Some reflections on blind
spots of ICT-based development projects for women’s entrepreneurship and empowerment ,
Gender, Technology and Development, DOI: 10.1080/09718524.2018.1506659

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/09718524.2018.1506659

Published online: 02 Oct 2018.

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GENDER, TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT
https://doi.org/10.1080/09718524.2018.1506659

RESEARCH ARTICLE

A new era for women? Some reflections on blind spots

of ICT-based development projects for women’s
entrepreneurship and empowerment
€ney-Frahm
Irem Gu
Departmental Information, Center for Governance and Culture in Europe, University of St Gallen, St
Gallen, Switzerland

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

This article deals with women’s empowerment through the use of Received 12 February 2018
information and communication technologies (ICT) in develop- Accepted 27 July 2018
ment projects. In paying special attention to female visibility in
the public sphere and to women’s marginalization in the labor KEYWORDS
market, the article analyzes the shortcomings in ICT-related proj- Female Entrepreneurship;
international development
ects’ conceptualization; in particular in those projects that employ policy; e-commerce;
ICT to support female entrepreneurship in the name of women’s women’s empowerment;
empowerment. It presents theoretical, methodological and ethical ICT; gender equality
arguments for a feminist engagement with contemporary trends
in development policy.

Introduction: international development and ICT for women’s

empowerment
Since at least the 1990s empowerment has become such a central concept in the
international development agenda (Luttrell, Quiroz, Scrutton, & Bird, 2009, p. 3) that
the current international development program for women implemented by the main
actors of international development policies like the UNDP and World Bank is called
empowerment approach (Moser, 1993). However, it is not always clear how to define
let alone analyse women’s empowerment. In its simplest sense, promoting women’s
empowerment can be understood as enabling women to gain more power – which in
itself is not easy to understand or measure – in order to achieve gender equality. The
main actors of international development policymaking usually consider female partici-
pation in education, political life, health systems and the labor market as indicators of
gender equality and women’s empowerment (UNDP, 2017a).
Relating information and communication technologies (ICT) to women’s empower-
ment is a rather new phenomenon on the international development agenda com-
pared to, for example, education, maternal health or political participation. Today, ICT
are included in the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) launched in
2016. SDG Five deals with ‘Gender Equality’ (UNDP, 2017b) with one of its specific

CONTACT Irem G€
uney-Frahm irem.guney-frahm@unisg.ch University of St Gallen, St Gallen, Switzerland
ß 2018 Asian Institute of Technology
2 €
I. GUNEY-FRAHM

targets being to ‘enhance the use of enabling technology, in particular information

and communications technology, to promote the empowerment of women’ (UNDP,
2017b). In development practice ICT are employed in a number of ways ranging from
mobile health services to provision of digital selling platforms for home-based female
workers. There is an emerging record of academic literature on ICT and women’s
empowerment; however, the research is limited and the effects of ICT on gender
equality and women’s empowerment are contentious.
This article provides a critical analysis of the conceptualization of some ICT-based
international development projects. The text pays special attention to those projects
that employ ICT to provide online selling platforms for home-based female workers
producing goods like food or textile and on which particularly little research has
been done to date. This is why the reflections presented here make use of previous
work on home-based working women of the urban poor, the typical target group in
such projects, and microcredit-driven empowerment strategies for these women
(Gu€ney-Frahm, 2014). The following engagement with the existing literature on ICT
and women’s empowerment reveals these projects’ shortcomings from a feminist
perspective on women’s empowerment: there are three indicators for a change in
gender inequality that guide this perspective: (i) an end to female marginalization in
the labor market, (ii) female visibility in the society, and (iii) a gender identity
beyond motherhood.

Theoretical and methodological insights

The theoretical and methodological framework of orientation has been applied in a
previous empirical research project on female micro-credit takers’ empowerment in
Turkey (Gu €ney-Frahm, 2014). The guiding theoretical and methodological principle
therein is that understanding and measuring empowerment through a development
intervention means understanding three different views on empowerment that need
to be compared and contrasted with one another and for which qualitative research
methods are especially helpful. First, one needs to understand empowerment from the
target group’s perspective by looking at their own subjective experiences regarding
the changes in their daily lives. These can be detected by employing retrospective
interviews and ethnographic methods. Second, there is the perspective of the project
designers and implementers, i.e. the development practitioners, who intervene into
the target group’s lives with an idealized version of a ‘gender regime’ (Connell, 2010,
p. 72) for the particular social setting they are working in. The development
practitioners’ perspective can be distilled by analysing relevant documents like their
work manuals, organizational guidelines and organizational values and by collecting
the practitioners’ interpretation of those guidelines via interviews. Third, empower-
ment must also be analysed through the researcher’s feminist perspective with his or
her own indicators of empowerment that depend on the specific aspects of the field
and that stem from his or her own values (Gu €ney-Frahm, 2013a, 2014, Forthcoming).
In this text, attention lies on the practitioner’s view. This point of view is analyzed
from a gender perspective based on feminist values that rest on a liberal stance
guided by Amartya Sen’s (2001) philosophy and its ‘ethical individualism’ (Robeyns,
 GENDER, TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT 3

2003, 2005) as well as by insights from feminist critique at globalization (Mohanty,

2003; Wichterich, 2003; Mies, 2012 [1982]). The discussion in this article is based on
three indicators for a feminist understanding of women’s empowerment through
income-generating development projects: (i) an end to women’s marginalization in
the labor market, (ii) female mobility, i.e. visibility in the society, and (iii) a gender
identity beyond motherhood (Gu €ney-Frahm, 2014, 2015). This feminist stance that also
guided previous research on women’s empowerment through microcredit schemes in
Turkey (Gu €ney-Frahm, 2014) is highly influenced by the specific aspects of Turkish
society, where all women regardless of their class or ethnic origin are faced with dif-
ferent forms of discrimination (Asena, 1987; Gu €ney-Frahm, 2014). Moreover, the struc-
tural changes since the 1980s and their negative impact on women and especially
poor women’s living conditions in Turkey (Erman, Kalayciog  lu, & Rittersberger-Tiliç,
2002; Ecevit, 2007; White, 1991, 2004; Gu €ney-Frahm, 2014) are also one of the reasons
for choosing these three criteria for the evaluation of development interventions’
empowerment potential. On the other hand, these indicators can be applied to
research on other developing countries as well.
In many developing countries, like in Turkey, globalization and neoliberal policies
have gone hand in hand in the last few decades. The global promotion of entrepre-
neurship, especially female entrepreneurship cannot be separated from socioeconomic
changes like the flexibilization of labor markets, the shift from manufacturing to the
service sector and export promotion. For many women in the global South, entry into
the labor market has become a necessity to sustain their own lives as well as the well-
being of their families. In this process of a ‘feminization of labor’ (Kabeer, 2008, pp.
35-43) women have usually been involved in flexible, insecure and informal working
arrangements so that their income is not sufficient to meet their households’ living
costs (Wichterich, 2003). Thus, the first feminist criterion to make judgments about
women’s empowerment through income generating development projects and in par-
ticular through female entrepreneurship should be the quality of the work (Gu €ney-
Frahm, 2014, 2015, 2016).
A high-quality work means above all an end to female marginalization in the labour
market (Gu €ney-Frahm, 2014, 2015, 2016). Research has revealed that since the collapse
of the Bretton Woods System and the introduction of the neoliberal structural adjust-
ment programs women, especially women of urban poor in developing countries have
gained access to the labor market in a disadvantaged position. Women are usually
involved in typical female sectors like textile or domestic cleaning; they are often sub-
contracted by middle-men and work home-based or in sweatshops (Erman et al.,
2002; Wichterich, 2003; White, 1991, 2004; Mies, 2012 [1982]). Bad working conditions,
low income, long working hours at home and in the workplace, insecurity, deteriorat-
ing health conditions, increased workload not only for the working women themselves
but also for other female members in their families and households like their daugh-
ters or their mothers are the hallmarks of women’s informal working arrangements
and their marginalization in the labor market in the developing world (King &
Evenson, 1983; Moser, 1993; Elson, 1994, 1995; Mayoux, 1999; Mohanty, 2003;
Wichterich, 2003; To €renli, 2010; White, 1991, 2004; Mies, 2012 [1982]; Gu €ney-Frahm,
2014). In fact, given the changing working arrangements that are characterized by
4 €
I. GUNEY-FRAHM

higher insecurity across the board, these criteria for a higher quality of work are rele-
vant for both women and men. Income generation should be an activity that does
not deteriorate one’s life – on the contrary, work should be there to improve people’s
daily life.
Moreover, there is empirical evidence that despite their difficult working conditions
and the amount of time spent on income-generating activities, many women tend to
undermine the value of their own income, for example by referring to themselves as
‘housewives’ (Mies, 2012 [1982]; Gu €ney-Frahm, 2014). Hence, various aspects need to
be incorporated into the design of development interventions to promote women’s
empowerment through income-generating activities. A good project design which
aims at a high quality of work for women should consider women’s time and level of
income, women’s own perception of their work as ‘work’ and women’s health as well
as that their work does not disadvantage other members of society like their daugh-
ters or elderly female family members who are already in a disadvantaged position
(Gu€ney-Frahm, 2014, 2015).
In addition, in many countries women’s marginalized way of taking part in the labor
market has been a solution for them to earn money in a way that does not endanger
their husband’s as well as their own prestige in the community (Erman et al., 2002). In
predominantly Muslim countries including Turkey one often encounters the patterns
of ‘classic patriarchy’ (Kandiyoti, 1988). An important element in this system is that in
its traditional application a family’s status primarily depends on the woman’s sexuality
and her interactions with other men outside of her family which results in ‘seclusion’
in a parallel female world where women and men’s spheres of daily lives are sepa-
rated and women are confined within the domestic sphere (D.A. Kandiyoti &
Kandiyoti, 1987; Kandiyoti, 1988).
However, due to increasing living costs since the 1980s in many countries like
Turkey, women of the urban poor have had to work without testing the cultural
boundaries put on their mobility and visibility in society (Erman et al., 2002). Hence,
letting women participate in the labor market in a marginalized and almost
‘invisible’ way through a development intervention would only be a further
reinforcement of their disadvantaged position in society. This is why women’s visibil-
ity and their participation in public life become the second criteria to evaluate wom-
en’s empowerment through income-generating development projects and female
entrepreneurship from a feminist perspective that seeks to establish gender equality
(Gu€ney-Frahm, 2014, 2015, 2016).
A third criterion that will guide this article is the existence of a gender identity
beyond motherhood in the conceptualization of development projects. For example,
many development projects like microcredits that purport to support female entrepre-
neurship have been designed for mothers who were expected to fulfil their families’
needs and consequently not for the goal of equal participation of women in the labor
market or in society (Ecevit, 2007; Gu €ney-Frahm, 2014, 2016). It is thus always worth
scrutinizing to what extent development projects to support female entrepreneurship
(and thus female empowerment) actually challenge the notion that women are pri-
marily mothers and consequently challenge the traditional gender identities within
the domestic sphere.
 GENDER, TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT 5

Contentious views on ICT and women’s empowerment – a brief overview

of the academic literature on ICT and development policymakers’
expectations from ICT
In development practice, the access to and use of ICT are both a goal and a means.
Closing the digital gender divide, the gender gap regarding the access to and the use
of digital technologies, is one of the main goals on the international development
agenda (International Telecommunication Union, 2017). Since ‘[o]ne fundamental way
in which gender is expressed in any society is through technology’ (Bray, 2007, p. 38),
closing the digital divide would be an important step in changing gender stereotypes
and gender inequality. Whereas investments in infrastructure are among the important
measures development policymakers want to take to close the gender gap (Intel,
2012, p. 46), academic research adds that closing the digital gender divide requires
further socioeconomic interventions: Women’s access to and use of digital technolo-
gies are influenced by factors such as their education and income level and – interre-
lated with these factors – by the urban-rural divide (Hilbert, 2011; Milek, Stork, &
Gillwald, 2011).
At the same time, for international development policymakers closing the digital
divide is an instrument for wider goals like the ‘creation of new types of economic
activity, employment opportunities, improvements in health-care delivery and other
services, and the enhancement of networking, participation and advocacy within soci-
ety’ and ‘the potential to improve interaction between Governments and citizens, fos-
tering transparency and accountability in governance’ (Sandys, 2005, p. 2). Therefore,
international development policy makes use of ICT in several ways such as in the
health, education, political and economic sectors. Academic researchers offer compet-
ing views on these policies.
An example of offering services in health sector can be found in the joint report of
the Earth Institute of Columbia University and Ericsson (2016, p. 65) that mentions the
possibility to use ICT for health services via telemedicine in poor, rural areas in the
developing world. A positive gender-related effect of using ICT in health services is
given by Martınez-Fernandez, Lobos-Medina, Dıaz-Molina, Chen-Cruz, and Prieto-Egido
(2015) who demonstrate that mobile consultations of the Guatemalean NGO TulaSud
had a significant effect on the decrease of maternal and infant mortality rates. Such
access to resources for one’s own well-being can also initiate further changes with
respect to gender equality. Yusuf-Khalil, Bozalek, Staking, Tuval-Mashiach, and
Bantebya-Kyomuhendo (2007, p. 60) for instance show that an online learning module
on women’s health that was designed for students from South Africa, Uganda,
Jamaica and Israel contributed to participants’ self-confidence and valuation of their
own existence. On the other hand, Al Dahdah, Desgrees Du Lou ^, and Meadel’s (2015,
pp. 227–228) general review of mobile health services highlights the risks of ICT-based
interventions into the health sector like data protection and the unequal relationship
between developing and developed countries in which the latter own and control
the technology.
ICT are also employed to increase women’s access to formal and non-formal
education via distance-learning opportunities. Moreover, distance learning, online
mentorship and e-counselling are also applied to challenge gender stereotypes as
6 €
I. GUNEY-FRAHM

in the worldwide initiative ‘Girls Excelling in Math and Science’, which uses Skype
to bring female professionals together with secondary school girls to act as their
mentors (The Earth Institute of Columbia University & Ericsson, 2016, p. 55).
However academic research also shows that these educational opportunities may
actually be associated with the reinforcement of gender stereotypes. Yeasmin,
Rahman, and Murthy’s study (2012) study of two Bangladeshi nongovernmental
organizations that offer ICT-based education services reveals that the learning mate-
rials were gender-biased and presented women primarily as caregivers and associ-
ated with reproductive domestic work.
A further way to use ICT in development is to support political participation by
increasing the accessibility of public services and intensifying the relationship between
governments and civil society. For example, The UNDP runs an e-governance project
that is meant to increase online public services and increase transparency in
Uzbekistan (UNDP, 2017c). The UNDP also promoted a pilot project for ‘e-citizenship’
in Western Turkey as well as an automated consulate system for the Turkish Ministry
of Foreign Affairs (UNDP, n.d.). Hafkin (2002, p. 15) from the UN’s Division for the
Advancement of Women states that ‘[w]omen could benefit from many e-government
services especially land and voter registration and license applications. They would
especially profit from online availability of services that would otherwise require travel
to the capital city’. On the other hand, Al-Rababah and Abu-Shanab’s study (2010) on
a Jordanian e-government project shows that a substantial portion of women in their
research were not aware of the e-government services and that they needed add-
itional measures including ICT-training to be able to use these services.
There are also ICT-based projects to support civil society and in particular women’s
advocacy groups. The Women of Uganda Network, for example, aims at ‘promoting
the use of ICTs by women and women organizations in Uganda so that opportunities
presented by ICTs can be used to effectively address national and local issues of sus-
tainable development, governance and service delivery’ (ICT4Democracy, 2017). The
UN (2010) views digital technologies and the internet as ‘a strategic opportunity’ for
the civil society to disseminate knowledge about their work and to increase their
work’s efficiency and influence. To €renli’s research (To€renli, 2005) on Turkey however
claims that since it is mostly middle class and upper-middle class women that have
access to ICT, women’s advocacy groups cannot reach the more disadvantaged mem-
bers of the society.
ICT are also used in development interventions in the economic sector. In inter-
national development, ICTs are perceived as a solution for women’s restricted access
to capital and business skills in that they can support financial inclusion and women’s
entrepreneurship by way of digital financial services (The Earth Institute of Columbia
University & Ericsson, 2016, pp. 32–45). An oft-cited example is mobile money
(UNCTAD 2013, p. 5; The Earth Institute of Columbia University & Ericsson, 2016,
pp. 33–42) through which women can gain access to financial services without neces-
sarily depending on the traditional banking system. Furthermore, development policy
aims at supporting female entrepreneurs to receive ICT training which they can use to
increase their business skills. Pem-Consult and Asian Development Bank for instance
helped female entrepreneurs in Armenia to gain general computer literacy ranging
 GENDER, TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT 7

from searching for information on the web to managing an email account (Pem
Consult, 2017).
In line with these positive expectations, an examination of two individual case stud-
ies of successful female entrepreneurs from Nigeria reveals that these entrepreneurs
view ICT skills as essential for their success in the market (Motilewa, Onakoya, & Oke,
2015). Similarly, Martin and Wright (2005) show that ICT-skills have enabled female
entrepreneurs to improve their business ideas and services like online marketing.
Joseph (2013) finds that the ICT contributed to women’s lives in India and have the
potential to provide women with new opportunities, yet there is also the need to use
them in a more efficient way. On the other hand, To €renli’s research (2010) on home-
based workers in Turkey demonstrates that access to ICT like owning a computer does
not offer a solution to women’s disadvantaged position as workers in the informal sec-
tor and that home-based workers have not made use of access to ICTs for their
income generating activities.
A further application of ICT in economic development interventions is to offer
digital selling platforms and thus access to markets to female entrepreneurs (The
Earth Institute of Columbia University & Ericsson, 2016, p. 39). Thas, Ramilo, and Cinco
(2007) give examples from Korea and Malaysia where governments promoted training
and the establishment of a digital platform for freelance women and home-based
workers to engage in commercial activities. In the Malaysian platform E-Entrepreneurs
Women Trade Center, for example, the products range from hijab clothing to bakery
products (E-Entrepreneurs Women Trade Center, 2017). A similar project of an e-com-
merce platform exists in Turkey, too. Supported by Vodafone Turkey, the project
Women First (Once € Kadın) in its own words promotes female entrepreneurship
through the provision of a digital selling platform as well as through trainings offered
to women to develop their business skills so that they are able to produce and sell
goods in this platform. The goods that are marketed consist of traditional handicrafts,
€
home textiles, clothing and home accessories (Girişimcilikte Once Kadin, 2017).
Existing literature on these platforms shows the positive aspects or deals with bar-
riers to enter the e-commerce rather than problematizing the idea of e-commerce
itself. For example, the Malaysian ewtc.my or similar platforms for e-commerce are for
Razak and Pisal (2016) an important opportunity for Muslim women to enter the
digital world. In another study on Thailand’s female home-based workers, Intaratat
(2016, p. 88) names marginalization of women in the labor market due to the domes-
tic work burden, female invisibility in the production process and masculine culture of
technology as the ‘three main issues concerning Thai women homeworkers using ICTs’
and concludes that programs that are also supported by the government have had a
positive impact on the empowerment of home-based workers (Intaratat 2016, p. 100)
who sell similar products like their colleagues in Turkey and Malaysia. Maier and Nair-
Reichert (2007) highlight the importance of women’s entrepreneurial activities in e-
commerce for their empowerment and argue that a socio-cultural change may occur
due to female entrepreneurship. Research about these platforms seems to be one of
the least extensive in the study of ICT and women’s empowerment.
To conclude, the views on the use of ICT to promote women’s empowerment
resemble the idea of ‘virtuous spirals’ for female empowerment, which Mayoux (1999)
8 €
I. GUNEY-FRAHM

originally used for expectations from microcredit programs: these expectations are
shaped by the idea that a woman gains more power in one domain, for example by
earning income, and then uses that newly gained power in other spheres like to
increase her voice in her household, then in her community and finally in society
(Mayoux, 1999). At the same time, the research on women’s empowerment and ICT is
limited and the cited academic studies demonstrate that their impact is controversial.

Women’s visibility in the public sphere, female marginalization in the

labor market and a gender-Identity beyond motherhood – blind spots of
ICT-based projects
It is not surprising to see conflicting opinions in the academic literature on the rela-
tionship between ICT and women’s empowerment. A researcher’s perspective on and
approach to empowerment depends not only on the specific aspects in the field but
also on his or her own values and experiences. The guiding feminist principles for this
article support the argument that although ICT-based development projects aim for
female empowerment and gender equality, they do in fact carry the risk of reproduc-
ing gender inequality.
The main problem lies in the conceptualization of these ICT-based development
interventions and that they do not necessarily challenge the existing structures of
inequality and rather prefer to operate within them. There are three important blind
spots with ICT-based projects, especially the e-commerce platforms for home-based
workers, (i) the importance of the quality of work, (ii) female visibility in the public
sphere and (iii) the promotion of a gender identity beyond motherhood and the
domestic sphere.
Above all, it is questionable to what extent women’s ICT-supported money earning
activities change the situation that these women are mostly home-based workers who
sell products with a low profit return and in a highly competitive market and who at
the same time are expected to fulfil household duties. Academic work has shown that
women who work and earn their income in the informal sector face the risk of endur-
ing bad working conditions for longer hours, which lead to time pressure, a higher
workload and poor health (Mayoux, 1999; To €renli, 2010; Gu
€ney-Frahm, 2014). In
To€renli’s (2010) words on home-based vendors: ‘[d]oing work at home reinforces the
illusion of using the spare time remaining after the completion of housework for the
women as much as for those who demand this labour supply’. Moreover, increases in
workload and time pressure can be inter-generational as the women’s mothers or
daughters also have to shoulder more tasks to assist the women in their household
chores (Gu €ney-Frahm, 2014).
Supporting women to produce typically female labor-intensive goods like bakery,
clothing or artisanal products like home decoration goods in order to sell them online
cannot be a model for the promotion of female entrepreneurship. Such an interven-
tion does not put an end to female marginalization in the labor market. Moreover,
these income-generating activities can hardly be referred to as entrepreneurship.
Genuinely successful entrepreneurship ought to be more than an extension of domes-
tic work and therefore ought to include additional aspects like having a sustainable
 GENDER, TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT 9

income and being a respected actor in the market. It should also involve innovation
and the attempt to fill a gap in the market (Gu €ney-Frahm, 2013b, 2014, 2016).
Interestingly, international development policy actually names these aspects as import-
ant characteristics of entrepreneurs. In an OECD Working Paper on entrepreneurial
activity that is based on an extensive review of existing definitions of entrepreneur-
ship, entrepreneurs are defined as ‘those persons (business owners) who seek to gen-
erate value, through the creation or expansion of economic activity, by identifying
and exploiting new products, processes or markets’ (Ahmad & Seymour, 2008, p. 14).
The authors (2008, p. 14) further highlight that ‘entrepreneurial activities require the
leveraging of resources and capabilities through innovation, but the opportunities
themselves always relate to the identification of either new products, processes or
markets’. The UNDP Evaluation Office relies on a similar definition of entrepreneurship:
‘Entrepreneurship can be defined as the process of using private initiative to transform
a business concept into a new venture or to grow and diversify an existing venture or
enterprise with high growth potential. Entrepreneurs identify an innovation to seize
an opportunity, mobilize money and management skills, and take calculated risks to
open markets for new products, processes and services’ (UNDP, 1999). Thus, it is
contradictory with the policymakers’ own guidelines to encourage poor women to
join the labor market in a way that does not fit their own definition of
entrepreneurship.
The lack of entrepreneurial innovation in women’s entrepreneurship in these pro-
grams results in a market in which all participants sell the same goods – an aspect
that is highlighted by previous research on marginalized female entrepreneurs.
Research on microcredit-takers in Turkey for example has shown that the more
women are involved in this system, the more competitive and thus problematic the
market (Adaman & Bulut, 2007, pp. 55-60; Gu €ney-Frahm, 2013b, 2014). Similar find-
€
ings are expressed by Torenli (2010) who argues that home-based workers’ working
conditions in Turkey result in increased competition in the market and undervalu-
ation of women’s work. If a feminist understanding of empowerment through a
development intervention rests on the assumption that women’s work cannot be
defined as being of high quality if this work puts society’s already marginalized
members into a further disadvantaged position, then the competition in a highly
problematic market structure and the resulting lack of solidarity among disadvan-
taged women make ICT’s potential to contribute to women’s empowerment appear
questionable.
ICT could and should be used in other ways that support female entrepreneurship
for new business ideas instead of relying on women’s existing skills – criticism that is
also directed towards microcredits (Gu €ney-Frahm, 2014; see also Yunus & Jolis, 2007).
Women could be encouraged to become engaged in other digital jobs. Moreover, fur-
ther training for business skills could be provided via ICT so that women’s main cus-
tomers in their e-commercial activities are not primarily women who are more likely
to buy traditional handicrafts and home decoration goods. In addition, ICT could be
employed for networking among women entrepreneurs including home-based ven-
€renli 2010) so that they can exchange ideas
dors to promote ‘solidaristic practices’ (To
and establish a supportive network.
10 €
I. GUNEY-FRAHM

Second, ICT-based online selling platforms hardly contribute to an increased female

presence in the ‘offline’ public sphere. There is a parallel female sphere of social and
economic activity which does not challenge the incumbent cultural norms (see also
Gu€ney-Frahm, 2014). Participating in the labor force by selling traditional handicrafts
in online platforms is not tantamount to taking part in the male-dominated public
space. A similar risk exists also in projects to foster e-citizenship and digital financial
inclusion. In countries where women’s presence in the public space is not very preva-
lent, it is likely that many women are ashamed to talk to public officials or bank offi-
cials, which may stem from cultural codes as well as from internalized discrimination
(Yunus & Jolis, 2007; Gu €ney-Frahm, 2014). Introducing women to an online reality
does not necessarily challenge these internalized gender norms. On the contrary, it
can once again consign women to the domestic sphere.
This conundrum may be due to the fact that international development policy-
makers mention cultural norms as obstacles for gender equality but do not really
engage in efforts to change them. In the UNCTAD report (2013, p. 5) on ICT and wom-
en’s entrepreneurship, cultural norms and sexual harassment in public transportation
are identified as barriers to women’s physical mobility in certain countries. Although
the report does not name the countries, it is very likely that it refers to the countries
which in Kandiyoti’s (1988) words would show patterns of ‘classic patriarchy’.
Nevertheless, due to the cultural restrictions on women’s presence in the public
sphere the UNCTAD report views ICT as an opportunity to ‘provide women entrepre-
neurs with the possibility of reaching out to and communicating with customers,
exploring prospective markets, attending business training courses, and networking
from within the confines of their home and without the need to travel’ (UNCTAD,
2013, p. 8). Similarly praising e-government projects for enabling women not to ‘travel
to the capital city’ (Hafkin, 2002) overlooks and disregards to what an extent the abil-
ity to travel to the capital city constitutes an empowering experience for many
women. If women are expected to comply with cultural norms that do not allow them
to be visible to the male-dominated public, then this expectation also renders the
idea of ‘virtuous spirals’ (Mayoux, 1999) redundant, i.e. the notion that women’s access
and use of ICT could initiate and lead to further changes in gender inequality.
On the other hand, ICT do have a great potential to contribute to gender equality
and ICT-based development interventions like e-commerce and e-government could
be designed in a way that challenge the norms which put women into the domestic
sphere and foresee an invisible participation in social life. For example, it would be an
important challenge against the internalized norms and stereotypes if the women
who use e-government services are asked and encouraged to give feedback on the e-
government services they receive without however stating their personal details.
Similarly, the websites for e-government services or e-commercial activities could
include information about women’s rights, the contact points to report abuse or har-
assment or to seek legal consultancy as well about successful role models including
female figures from business and political life.
Third and in relation with the previous points, ICT-based projects for home-based
workers in particular rely on gender stereotypes that perceive women primarily as
mothers. Above all, a woman’s traditional role as a mother in the domestic sphere
 GENDER, TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT 11

cannot change if women are expected to stay at home and take part in the labor mar-
ket from home by producing and selling goods that had been produced by mothers
for generations. Moreover, between the lines, ICT-based projects are regarded as time-
savers for women, an understanding which does not necessarily challenge the under-
lying reasons for women’s lack of time. The products that are produced and sold in
the online selling platforms and for which women receive training imply that it is nor-
mal that women’s paid and unpaid activities could be very similar to each other and
that an income can be earned while continuing to fulfil their household duties (see
also Gu€ney-Frahm, 2014). This picture that is referred to as women’s entrepreneurship
is reminiscent of Ekinsmyth’s work on ‘mumpreneurship’, which ‘involves the configur-
ing of a business around the spatio-temporal routines of childcare work’ (Ekinsmyth,
2014, p. 1235). In other words, the provision of online selling platforms for home-
based workers is premised on the synonymous use and understanding of the words
women and mothers.
Undoubtedly, ICT cannot be the only solution for the unequal distribution of child-
care work between the sexes. Additional interventions by the state and the private
sector are necessary to increase the number of childcare facilities. What ICT-based
development projects can do however is that project designers ask themselves in the
beginning if the women they target stay at home because they want to or because
they do not have other options. Here it is worth remembering Amartya Sen’s philoso-
phy that basically points to the importance of increasing the alternatives for people’s
lives through development interventions (Sen, 2001; Keleher, 2007). An additional
measure could be to allow mothers who are engaged in e-commercial activities to
exchange their experiences and other ideas in the offline reality so that they are
above all outside of their home.

Conclusions and outlook

This article aimed at demonstrating the blind spots in the conceptualization of ICT-
based development projects, in particular of those projects that focus on female entre-
preneurship, and highlights their shortcomings from a feminist perspective. Given the
theoretical and methodological framework of orientation here, this article does not
deny the possibility that development projects which use ICT to promote female
empowerment may in fact offer an improvement in the daily life of the target group
from the target group’s own perspective. However, this text has identified important
blind spots in the conceptualization of ICT-based women’s empowerment projects
from a feminist perspective.
These blind-spots and initial reflections presented here are based on insights stem-
ming from previous findings about home-based workers, in particular about micro-
€ney-Frahm, 2014).
credit-takers, and on the importance of the quality of their work (Gu
Further empirical research is needed to develop a new theoretical model as well as to
make statements about the daily lives of women who are supported by ICT-based
development interventions including data on their time allocation, their valuation of
their own work and working conditions. It is also possible that these women identify
an improvement in their lives which according to them is a process of empowerment.
12 €
I. GUNEY-FRAHM

Nevertheless, even if projects may offer an improvement in the target groups’ daily
lives from their own perspective one should use caution before describing the process
as empowerment. For something to be considered empowerment from a feminist per-
spective, it must also be analyzed by looking at changes in patriarchal structures and
gender inequality.
The discussion here has revealed that several critical aspects emerge at exactly the
point where female empowerment via female entrepreneurship is linked to the use of
ICTs. The use of ICTs to promote female entrepreneurship should go beyond women’s
traditional roles. Moreover, it ought to take place in a way that allows women to be
visible in the public space and guarantees a stable, sustainable income. The use of
ICTs to promote female empowerment via promoting female entrepreneurship should
go beyond using and relying on women’s existing skills and gender norms. Without
altering or at least striving to alter the marginalization of women in the labor market,
development interventions are by necessity unable to effect a change in gender
inequality. As long as this is not the case, the term “entrepreneurship” will be mislead-
ing to describe women’s home-based income-generating activities. Recalling the
words of a microcredit-taker, women will remain “working housewives” rather than
become “entrepreneurs” (Gu €ney-Frahm, 2014). In other words, new technologies which
are today presented as the greatest indicators of a new era in human history should
also mean new entrepreneurial activities for women of the developing world.

Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and
Innovation of the University of Edinburgh for hosting her as visiting research fellow in 2017, as
well as to the anoynmous reviewers for their suggestions.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors
Irem Gu€ney-Frahm works primarily on questions of gender and development and is currently
based in Switzerland. She has studied economics, European studies and gender studies in
Istanbul, Bath and Berlin.

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