Mobile Phone Utilization in Women’s Community-Based Organizations to Promote Empowerment

There is a growing recognition that community-based organizations (CBOs) show greater success than other development organizations in promoting empowerment. It has also been acknowledged that information and communication technology (ICT) can be a powerful tool for development. In pursuit of empowerment of women, there is an interest to further study CBOs and ICT, and how they can be combined to take further steps forward. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how mobile phones can be utilized in women's community-based organizations to promote empowerment, conducted as a case study on a women's CBO in Bangalore, India. The study shows that the main organizational characteristics that promote empowerment in CBOs are the participatory approach and the fostering of sense of community. Mobile phones constitute a valuable tool for enhancing these characteristics. However, the study also shows that the digital gender divide and ICT related risks that women face also have organizational implications that have to be considered by CBOs when utilizing ICT