Explanatory Factors for the Non-Ownership of Mobile Phones by Women in Cameroon.

Gédéon Lazare NDOUGA ENADA, Institut de Formation et de Recherche Démographiques (IFORD)

The mobile phone has become an almost universal tool, but disparities persist between regions of the world and between genders, especially in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). Women are 10% and 15% less likely to own a mobile phone than men in LMICs and Sub-Saharan Africa, respectively. However, the mobile phone has several sociodemographic advantages, such as fertility control, mortality reduction, birth registration, etc. In Cameroon, 77.3% of men own a mobile phone compared to 63.6% of women, a gap of 14%. This study analyzes the individual and contextual factors influencing the non-ownership of mobile phones by women in Cameroon, using data from the 2018 DHS-V. Bivariate analyses helped profile women without mobile phones and identify associated factors. Women without mobile phones are generally uneducated, unemployed, Muslim, living in low-income and non-electrified households, with no media exposure and low participation in household decision-making. Explanatory factors include region and residence, the proportion of uneducated women in the community, household living standards, electricity ownership, marital cohabitation status, and decision-making participation level. At the individual level, religion, education level, media exposure, economic activity, and age are also determining factors.

Keywords: Inequality, Disadvantage and Discrimination, Multi-level modeling , Gender Dynamics, Data and Methods

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