ABSTRACT
The question of women’s empowerment stems from the fact that there are underlying inequalities in our society. Over the years, women have engaged actively in economic activities, ranging from the urban informal sector to the corporate sector, yet there are many barriers that prevent women from contributing to the economic development on an equal footing. A new dimension that has proven crucial to women’s empowerment is technological empowerment through equal access and usage. The chapter aims to situate the question of women’s empowerment through ICT-led financial inclusion as the access and control of economic resources influences the decision-making and agency of women. To understand the role that ICT plays in women’s economic empowerment, the chapter takes into consideration other social variables, while focusing on financial inclusion as a central parameter.
The aim of the study is to assess the strength of association between women’s financial inclusion and four major socioeconomic determinants – ICT, GNI/capita, the level of education of women, and policies related to women in general. A three-step process is employed to explore the relative importance of the five predictor variables which includes a visual analysis of scatter plots and its mathematical conversion of the concerned variables, linear regression, and residual analysis.
