Is e-commerce helpful to the women sector? How has it helped in empowering women?

by Zorayda Ruth B. Andam

In general, the Internet and e-commerce have empowered sectors previously discriminated against. The Guyanan experience can attest to this.

Women have gained a foothold in many e-commerce areas. In B2C e-commerce, most success stories of women-empowered enterprises have to do with marketing unique products to consumers with disposable income. The consumers are found largely in developed countries, implying that there is a need for sufficient infrastructure for the delivery of products for the business to prosper and establish credibility. For example, if an enterprise can venture into producing digital goods such as music or software that can be transmitted electronically or if such goods can be distributed and/or delivered locally, then this is the option that is more feasible and practicable.

Aside from the Guyanan experience, there are many more successful cases of e-commerce ventures that the women sector can emulate. Some concrete examples are: Tortasperu.com ( http://www.tortasperu.com.pe), a business involving the marketing cakes in Peru run by women in several Peruvian cities; Ethiogift ( http://www.ethiogift.com), involving Ethiopians buying sheep and other gifts over the Internet to deliver to their families in other parts of the country, thereby dispensing with the physical delivery of goods abroad; and the Rural Women’s Association of the Northern Province of South Africa, which uses the Web to advertise its chickens to rich clients in Pietersburg.

While most of the examples involve B2C e-commerce, it must be noted that women are already engaged in wholesale distribution businesses in developing countries. Thus, they can begin to penetrate B2B or B2G markets.

Women Empowerment in Bangladesh: The Case of the Grameen Village Phone Network

The Grameen Village Phone Network is a classic example of women’s empowerment in Bangladesh. Operators of the village phones are all poor women (who have been selected for their clean and strong credit record). These village phones are regularly visited by members of male-dominated villages. Notably, the women entrepreneurs (village operators) enjoy wider discretion in expending their profits from their phone services than with their household income.