NO! We don’t have a joint account’: Mobile telephony, mBanking, and gender inequality in the lives of married women in western rural Kenya
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Date
2021-06
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Information, Communication & Society
Abstract
This paper examines how mobile communication and mobile
banking is used by women in rural western Kenya (Elgeyo
Marakwet), a resource-constrained area where women must
carefully monitor the flow of money through their households.
Also, women face structural inequality. Among other things,
polygyny (one husband and several wives) is legal. Based on the
inductive analysis of 25 interviews with women, and using the
lens of intersectionality, we examine their use of mobile banking.
We examine how mobile technology plays into the management
of the household economy, and how it is used in extramarital
relationships. We discuss how women use mobile communication
in their collective savings groups (chama). We see how the
mobile phone can be the locus of tensions within the household
and how mBanking both supports the lives of the women but
also how this can eventually undercut social support.
Description
Journal Article
Keywords
Kenya, Chama, Women, Polygyny, Mobile communication, mPesa
Citation
Komen, L. J., & Ling, R. (2021). ‘NO! We don’t have a joint account’: Mobile telephony, mBanking, and gender inequality in the lives of married women in western rural Kenya. Information, Communication & Society, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2021.1927137