Rural Women and the Use of Mobile Phones in Peru. Effect on Empowerment with A Vision of Human Capital

This article proposes to measure the effect of the adoption of mobile technologies on the empowerment of rural women from the perspective of development challenges and using a human capital approach. For this, the model ofMincer (1970) was taken as a reference, analyzing the effect that the adoption of mobile telephony has on the level of income of the adopters. Using the National Household Survey (ENAHO) in Peru, data from the period between 2017 and 2019 were studied to propose an estimate of the effect on income of the adoption of mobile phones by rural women in this country. The results suggest that there is a positive relationship -beyond other additional variables that could influence- between the relationship between the increase in the use of mobile phones and income levels in women in rural Peruvian areas. The article illustrates the use of the Mincerian function to capture the effects of technology on wealth generation. Finally, conclusions and recommendations are presented for policy makers regarding progress towards economic development with a gender approach.