Understanding ICT: The Potential and Challenges for the Empowerment of Rural Women in Bangladesh

Understanding ICT: The Potential and Challenges for the Empowerment of Rural Women in Bangladesh

Nazmunnessa Mahtab, Nehal Mahtab
ISBN13: 9781466636910|ISBN10: 1466636912|EISBN13: 9781466636927
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-3691-0.ch012
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MLA

Mahtab, Nazmunnessa, and Nehal Mahtab. "Understanding ICT: The Potential and Challenges for the Empowerment of Rural Women in Bangladesh." Digital Public Administration and E-Government in Developing Nations: Policy and Practice, edited by Edward Francis Halpin, et al., IGI Global, 2013, pp. 224-247. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-3691-0.ch012

APA

Mahtab, N. & Mahtab, N. (2013). Understanding ICT: The Potential and Challenges for the Empowerment of Rural Women in Bangladesh. In E. Halpin, D. Griffin, C. Rankin, L. Dissanayake, & N. Mahtab (Eds.), Digital Public Administration and E-Government in Developing Nations: Policy and Practice (pp. 224-247). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-3691-0.ch012

Chicago

Mahtab, Nazmunnessa, and Nehal Mahtab. "Understanding ICT: The Potential and Challenges for the Empowerment of Rural Women in Bangladesh." In Digital Public Administration and E-Government in Developing Nations: Policy and Practice, edited by Edward Francis Halpin, et al., 224-247. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2013. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-3691-0.ch012

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Abstract

This chapter focuses on how e-Governance empowers women, specifically poor rural women. ICT for Development emerged as a new area of work in the mid-1990s at a time when the potential of new technologies was starting to be better understood. In poor countries, particularly rural women in Bangladesh, access to ICTs is still a faraway reality for the vast majority of these women as they are further removed from the information age, as they are unaware of the demonstrated benefit from ICTs to address ground-level development challenges. The barriers they face pose greater problems for the poor rural women, who are more likely to be illiterate, not know English, and lack opportunities for training in computer skills. Access to ICT can enable women to gain a stronger voice in their government and at the global level. ICT also offers women flexibility in time and space and can be of particular value to women who face social isolation, especially the women in the rural areas in Bangladesh. To represent the use of ICT, this chapter focuses on the use of “Mobile Phone” by the rural women of Bangladesh and how the use of mobile phones have helped in empowering rural poor women in Bangladesh.

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