In 2023, the gender gap in mobile internet adoption is zero in Latin America, according to The Mobile Gender Gap Report 2024 by GSMA.
The report indicates that the gender gap in mobile internet adoption in the region decreased from 5% in 2017 to 2% by 2022, completely disappearing by 2023.
However, there are still 45 million women disconnected from the internet in Latin America.
Although, at the regional level, there is no gender gap in internet adoption, the study details that it persists in Mexico and Guatemala.
In Guatemala, 72% of men have internet access, while 69% of women have access. In Mexico, 78% of men use the internet, compared to 77% of women.
In mobile devices ownership, the gender gap in Latin America was 1% since 2016 and the gender gap in smartphone ownership was 4% in 2022; it grew from 3% in 2021 and 2% during 2020 and 2019.
The gender gap in smartphone ownership is 4%, the same as it was in 2022. However, this represents growth from 2021, when the data was 3% and 2% in 2020, according to the report.
“Gender gaps in mobile internet adoption are wider than gender gaps in mobile ownership in most markets, except Pakistan, Guatemala and Mexico where they are roughly the same, and in Indonesia where the gender gap in mobile ownership is wider than for mobile internet,” detailed the GSMA analysis.
In Mexico, 90% of men have a mobile, while 87% of women own a device. Meanwhile, in Guatemala, 84% of men have a phone, and 78% of women have access to a device.
“The type of mobile device a person owns matters and affects whether and how they use the internet. Specifically, once someone owns a smartphone, they are considerably more likely to adopt mobile internet, and use it regularly and in many ways. Our research has found that once women own a smartphone, these metrics mirror those of men very closely,” said the report.
The gender gap in smartphone ownership in Latin America is 4%, which means 80 million women do not own a smartphone.
“Conversely, although the smartphone gender gap in Mexico widened slightly, 73% of men and 66% of women own one, more than in any other survey country,” according to The Mobile Gender Gap Report 2024.