Wireless technology changes not only the way people communicate, it can expand access to education, financial services and information about critical subjects like healthcare.
However, in many developing nations around the world, fewer women than men have access to the technology.
Women in low- and middle-income countries in South Asia, such as Afghanistan, are 37 percent less likely to own a mobile phone than a man, according to 2010 estimates from the GSMA. Across all low- and middle-income countries, defined by the World Bank as countries with a gross annual income of between $995 and $3,945 per person, women are 21 percent less likely to own a cell phone than their male counterparts.
For women in developing nations, this makes it harder to communicate, limits access to information and cuts them off from mobile banking services that have found success in countries like Kenya.
This discrepancy prompted the GSMA to launch its mWomen Programme last October with broad support from the humanitarian sector and the telecommunications industry, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former British First Lady Cherie Blair, Nokia and 25 wireless operators.
The program's goal: to halve the cell phone gender gap in developing countries within three years.
On Thursday, the mWomen Programme laid out four recommendations it believes will help achieve its ambitious objectives in its first-ever policy paper: reduce the overall cost of owning a cell phone; remove cultural stigmas about women owning phones; increase women's familiarity with wireless technology; and develop value-added services targeted specifically at women, such as the text4baby campaign in the United States.
"We want to close the gender gap to increase the ability of women to access products and services that can enhance their lives," says mWomen director Trina DasGupta.
Calling the initiative "creative capitalism," DasGupta says the group believed getting the wireless industry involved would be more effective than the efforts of a small non-governmental organization.
Telecommunications companies have more than just philanthropic reasons to encourage women to sign up for wireless service. The GSMA estimates that there are 300 million fewer female subscribers than male subscribers in developing nations, representing $13 billion in unrealized service revenues.
The mWomen Programme is working to develop wireless services that will be appealing to women, while helping to improve operators' bottom line.
"We're working to determine what it is they want and what it is they'll pay for," DasGupta says.
The mWomen Programme's full set of recommendations is available on its website, http://www.mwomen.org.