The Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and ICRW partner on research in India
The Cherie Blair Foundation for Women and the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) are collaborating on a research project in India which will focus on how information and communication technologies (ICT) such as mobile phone services, can facilitate women’s entrepreneurship in India.
The research comes out of our 2010 Women Mean Business Conference in Mumbai, where leading professionals and women entrepreneurs gathered to discuss how ICT could help women overcome the barriers that women entrepreneurs in India face.
India was chosen partly because of its rapidly developing economy. Also despite the fact that mobile phones are seemingly ubiquitous in India, there is a significant gender gap in access to mobile technology in South Asia, where a man is 37% more likely to have access to a mobile phone than a woman.
The research will identify factors which enhance the ability of technology to transform Indian women's economic experiences and continue India’s economic development by focusing on the relationship Indian women entrepreneurs have with technology as well as the emerging trends. The report will serve as the foundation for a set of recommendations that can facilitate concrete action by development actors, the government and the private sector.
“We want to better understand how women entrepreneurs are using technology, as well as the barriers that inhibit their access to it. All of this will help us identify the factors that need to be in place for women entrepreneurs to thrive economically.” - Anjala Kanesathasan, ICRW
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