Digital rural gender divide in Latin America and the Caribbean

This report presents empirical evidence showing the existence of a first-level digital gender divide in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region. It does so by leveraging the richness of two data sources: the Gallup World Poll and digital trace data on the gender composition of Facebook users available from its advertising platform. Results from the analysis of the Gallup World Poll show that in the 23 Latin American countries under analysis, there exists a digital gender gap in mobile-phone ownership whereby women are on average less likely to own a mobile phone than men. The digital gender gap is gradually narrowing over time, yet with an apparent worsening over the last half decade. Additionally, characteristics such as gender, socio-economic status, and household location of residence interact with each other producing multiple layers of disadvantage for women. Specifically, low-educated women living in rural areas turn out to be the least “connected” group, thus highlighting important areas for policy intervention. Therefore, addressing these inequalities is an opportunity to know the realities of rural women to improve their access to this resource and promote their economic and political empowerment. Results from aggregate analyses are confirmed by a micro- level analysis (N=120000+) showing that, across specifications, women are less likely to own a mobile phone than their male counterparts even after accounting for a host of socio-demographic characteristics. When we augment the Gallup data with indicators retrieved from the International Labor Organization (ILO), we find that a narrower digital gender gap is associated with better labor - market prospects for women as well. Looking further at types of digital connectivity for those who are online, we analyse social media use by gender in countries of the region by looking at the gender composition of Facebook users, one of the largest social media platforms used in the region. The Facebook gender gap index, defined as the ratio of female-to-male Facebook users divided by the female-to-male ratio of the population, shows that, relative to countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, male and female Facebook penetration rates in Latin America are quite balanced. This result masks, however, some heterogeneities. In fact, while in several countries of the region including Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, Suriname, Uruguay and Paraguay, women are more likely to be Facebook users than men, in others, including Mexico and the Central American region (e.g. Nicaragua, Guatemala) men are slightly more active on Facebook. We conclude by reflecting on data limitations and proposing fruitful avenues for future research