Telecentres use in rural communities and women empowerment: Case of Western Cape

Type Conference Paper - 14th IFIP WG 9.4 International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries, ICT4D 2017, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, May 22-24, 2017, Proceedings
Title Telecentres use in rural communities and women empowerment: Case of Western Cape
Author(s)
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2017
City Yogyakarta
Country/State Indonesia
URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59111-7_11
Abstract
Women are still facing exclusion in the use of telecentres, largely because of cultural perceptions that they are responsible for the home; telecentres are also widely perceived appropriate for men to find employment. This paper presents an analysis of the benefits women derive from using telecentres. This study explores how telecentres empower women in the rural communities by analysing three telecentres in the rural setting of Western Cape, South Africa. A qualitative approach involving semi-structured interviews was used to gather in-depth details on individual empowerment of the rural women. The results obtained show that some rural women used the telecentres to enhance economic standards, which resulted in individual empowerment in social, psychological, information and economic dimensions. This study highlights the potential of telecentres in empowering women and proposes that the government and NGOs consider the telecentre as a means of addressing gender digital divide issues.

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