Technology: Friend or Foe for Women of Myanmar Due to a range of intersecting factors, women are less likely to have money to buy modern smartphones or touch phones, power banks or to access them when they wish, particularly for female-headed households in conflict-affected areas. Women are also less likely to have the disposable income needed to pay for internet access, especially when other needs (food, shelter, medicine, etc.) have higher priority. Furthermore, as the family’s financial manager, women fulfill their obligation to ensure the best use of a limited family budget by prioritizing other family members’ needs before their own and reducing their own data usage. It is also noted that women with disabilities, who have lower rates of labor force participation and compensation, are extremely vulnerable when faced with longer periods of unemployment. The COVID-19 pandemic and the coup has significantly reduced the ability of women with disabilities and their families’ ability to withstand further negative shocks. “Since access to mobile communication has become more expensive, staying connected with family members all the time is no longer a priority for low-income families. As household financial manager, women are forced to deplete their savings and sell important belongings, including mobile phones to survive. Even if women had a mobile, they would struggle to purchase airtime or top-ups required to use it due to women’s limited earnings. In most poor families, they find it difficult to pay for top-ups, so they divide their mobile uses in a way that men’s phones are used to make phone calls and women’s phones to receive incoming calls.” (KII_09, a woman from women’s rights network) “Beyond women’s constrained mobility in isolated and conflict-affected areas due to safety concerns, women’s IT access is also affected when there is a substantial wage disparity between men and women. Women are less likely to afford purchasing mobile data services, and this limits ethnic minority women’s full participation in online activities unless the organizations compensate for the mobile top-ups.” (KII_06, a woman from women’s rights organization) 24