Household access to ICTs and the gender of the household head

What is it about?

Female headed households (FHHs) are associated with limited access to household ICTs. South African settlements can be classified into four settlements, namely: formal urban areas, informal urban settlements, formal rural areas and tribal rural areas. FHHs constitute the largest number in tribal rural areas. Our study finds that, for some ICTs (radio, television, telephone, cellphones, internet and computers), FHHs in tribal rural areas are more likely to have access to ICTs compared to households in informal urban areas. That is, FHHs in rural areas are more likely to have access to some forms of ICTs compared to FHHs in informal settlements.

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Why is it important?

The paper is important because it adds the the discussion of the gender based housholf devide by providing insight into the factor which determine the digital divide. In addition the paper presents the confounding effects of location of residence on the gender based household divide for the South Africa context. It illustrates the effects of competing factors on determining the divide.

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