Framing Empowerment: Representation and Reception of Mobile Technology and the Female Figure in INGO Advertising

Mobile for Development (M4D) is a type of Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) project which aims to close the ‘digital divide’ by placing mobile phones in the hands of global South users, where there may be existing gaps in ownership and access. These efforts position the mobile phone as a tool that enables economic empowerment, financial well-being, and independence, especially for female beneficiaries. These programs, often promoted by International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGOs) and bi-lateral institutions that are headquartered in the Western world, operate these programs in countries where the digital divide, characterised by the gap in mobile phone ownership by economic status as well as gender status, is the widest. India is included in these locations, where the gendered digital divide is among the highest in Asia.

This thesis examines the promotion of M4D programs operating in India by INGOs headquartered in the United States. The thesis is concerned with how advertising mediates the goals and beneficiaries of these programs to a prospective donor audience in the United States. It is also concerned with how these advertisements are perceived by the group this advertising aims to represent. The findings suggest that M4D advertising operationalise the female figure to legitimise the claim of the mobile phone as a tool for empowerment, relying on a discourse of neoliberal feminist empowerment that frames poverty alleviation and development outcomes as achievable through the practical use of mobile technology. Despite this, the group this advertising represents-- rural, Indian women-- find the advertising to be empowering, suggesting that the globalisation of knowledge is influencing mediated perceptions of empowerment and its association with capitalist market.