Unlocking the Potential: Women and Mobile Financial Services in Emerging Markets

[weex]

There are several threads about how to get more women on board with Bitcoin. Just thought this recent report might help with people's thinking about it.

http://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/unlocking-the-potential

[Stephen Gornick]

There are several threads about how to get more women on board with Bitcoin.

Here's an example of our typical demographic representation:
 - http://www.bitcoin2013.com/bitcoin-2013-panelists.html

Just thought this recent report might help with people's thinking about it.

If the husband is working abroad to support a family, it will be the wife handling the remittance payment (i.e., women receive remittances transfers much more often than men).




TIL:

Money guard: Women sometimes ask friends or family to hold cash for a certain period of time. They often do this to
keep an accumulated lump sum safe, and they worry that, if they hold the money, they will end up spending it or that
someone in their household might take it.

Women feel empowered and independent if they have the freedom to spend their money as
they like, without undue demands from family and friends.
‘I can hide my money but he still finds, so I have to hide it very far so he can’t know where it is.’
– Kenyan woman describing her husband

Women in low- and middle-income
countries are 21% less likely to own phones than men.

35% of Kenyan women interested in trying MFS cited a
lack of identification or other documents as their main reason for not opening an account,

[inge]

Nice paper. In developing countries the role of women is usually underestimated. But they are the ones that most of the times keep the household in hands. This is the reason that many times women are the targets of development programs based on “microcredit”. On the other hand, in regions with a fragmented bank system, a simple bank transaction would mean a lot of paper work. This is the reason I strongly believe that a “tool” like Bitcoin in such a region would help the economic development in a positive way. I presume one “little” problem remain: a large part of the population in developing countries have quite a low education level. Would they be able to understand how Bitcoin works?

Regards, Inge

[Lethn]

Good thing Bitcoin let's you password your wallet so people on your computer can't steal it eh?

[weex]

I presume one “little” problem remain: a large part of the population in developing countries have quite a low education level. Would they be able to understand how Bitcoin works?

I think this would have to happen as more of a boots on the ground strategy. So much in Bitcoin thus far has just been putting up a post or website and leaving it to the potential user to find the service, learn, evaluate, and use it.

At some point there will be better examples of a strategy where agents go out and recruit users for a fee. Basically a company in one of these areas will do some research and figure out an incentive structure that will work to sign up people to start using their Bitcoin-included service. In short, I only think the deep understanding is necessary for the DIY crowd. The majority of people will learn about it through a paid agent first and another group will come onboard once they see the first group having success.

Good thing Bitcoin let's you password your wallet so people on your computer can't steal it eh?

I thought the same thing when I read that quote. Of the four qualities, only convenience is lacking. Privacy, security, and reliability are already here for everyone to enjoy.

[Lethn]

Yeah user friendliness is a pain in the arse right now with Bitcoin, good thing it's open source. I'm actually thinking of posting up some designs I'm thinking of software I'd like to see programmed for free because programmers most of the time are terrible at explaining things or making easy to understand interfaces lol.

[weex]

Yeah user friendliness is a pain in the arse right now with Bitcoin, good thing it's open source. I'm actually thinking of posting up some designs I'm thinking of software I'd like to see programmed for free because programmers most of the time are terrible at explaining things or making easy to understand interfaces lol.

That's a good idea. We definitely need more mockups to review and I'm sure they would help others who want to start programming right now do what they do best.

[Gabi]

If women want to use bitcoin they do exactly what we did: google bitcoin, read the wiki, do their homework, learn how it works. Yes, it require EFFORTS. It is NOT easy. Work is required!!

Btw, bitcoin population is like 97% men and 3% women but no one is stopping women from using bitcoin. Then why this discrepancy? What is the feminists opinion? Are they too busy organizing feminist protests to learn how bitcoin work?

[TheButterZone]

Bitcoin should appeal to most libertarians. Most women that use the internet more than the average amount of hours per week, either self-identify as libertarian or act like they are, as far as I've seen. So word of mouth is critical; let your bitcoin flag fly!