The After Access qualitative study on gender and digital technologies explores the lived experiences of adolescent girls, female teachers, women’s collectives, and community health workers in Ethiopia, alongside Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda, to understand how women navigate digital access and use within distinct socio-economic and cultural contexts.
In the Ethiopia report, the study reveals a digital landscape marked by rapid but uneven transformation. While mobile subscriptions have grown significantly and telecom liberalisation has expanded network coverage, structural constraints continue to shape women’s digital engagement. High data costs relative to income, limited access to electricity, low digital literacy, and the prohibitive cost of smartphones restrict meaningful participation, particularly for rural and low-income women. Gendered norms, male gatekeeping of devices, and heightened exposure to online harassment further compound these barriers. As a result, Ethiopia exhibits one of the widest gender gaps in digital access in the region, with stark disparities between urban and rural communities.
Despite these constraints, women across all four population groups demonstrate agency and adaptability. Mobile phones serve as essential tools for communication, education, professional coordination, activism, and small-scale entrepreneurship. Teachers and community health workers use digital platforms to improve service delivery and professional development; adolescent girls rely on messaging apps and online resources to supplement learning; women’s collectives use digital tools for advocacy, income generation, and peer support. Assistive technologies also enable visually impaired participants to engage independently in digital spaces.
The report underscores that digital inclusion in Ethiopia cannot be addressed through connectivity alone. Coordinated, gender-responsive interventions are required including, expanded access to electricity and affordable internet, subsidised smartphones, inclusive digital literacy and online safety training, accessible platform design, and community-level engagement to address restrictive gender norms. Without such context-aware and intersectional policy action, Ethiopia’s digital transformation risks reinforcing existing inequalities rather than advancing equitable opportunity.
