LA CONSTANTE DE PLANCK Y LA NATURALEZA “CUANTICA” DE LA LUZ

Since the earliest days, women have used the telephone for social purposes such as to contact family members, relatives and friends. The ethnographic study of Rakow (1992) on the female use of telephones in a small community in the USA, for instance, found that women’s telephone conversations with family members, friends and community members ‘hold together the fabric of the community’ (Rakow 1992, p. 34) because they helped form and maintain relationships, organise community functions, and allow interlocutors to escape from their daily routines, boredom and loneliness. They used telephones for ‘gendered community work and for care-giving’ (Rakow 1992, p. 9). Adult women’s talk over the telephone, known as ‘visiting’ (replacing the actual physical act of visiting people in their homes), became acceptable in the community. When ‘visiting’ became prolonged, however, it became ‘gossip’ and was disparaged (Rakow 1992, p. 37). Men used the telephone less than women, and wanted their wives to make even the few calls they had to make for business purposes, when at home. Therefore, ‘the telephone is a site at which the meanings of gender are expressed and practised’ (Rakow 1992, p. 33) and women’s use of telephones is described as a form of talk that is both ‘gendered work and gender work’ (Rakow 1992, p. 58).

Ann Moyal’s (1992) Australian study conducted with 200 women about their telephone use, found that it formed and maintained a ‘psychological neighbourhood’ (Moyal 1992, p. 59), as they used it for intrinsic purposes (to communicate with family members, relatives and friends or for voluntary work and counselling) more than for instrumental purposes (making appointments and arrangements, purchasing or information seeking). Their kin-keeping calls assisted their well-being, self-esteem and security (Moyal 1992, p. 55) and engaged in voluntary work using their telephones. Hence, ‘a pervasive, deeply rooted, dynamic feminine culture of the

telephone’ (Moyal 1992, p. 67) existed among female telephone users. However, in both (Moyal 1992; Rakow 1992), women were found to be reprimanded, teased or made fun of for their time spent on the telephone by their husbands or fathers.

Similar to the (landline) telephone, the mobile phone was initially designed for ‘young adult, white and affluent men’ or for ‘male yuppies’ (Young Urban Professionals) (Fortunati 2009, p. 25). Yet, women were again able to appropriate it once they started using it to attend to family responsibilities while being employed outside the home (Rakow & Navarro 1993). The study by Rakow and Navarro (1993), conducted in Chicago, USA, in 1991 with 19 upper middle and middle class women using the snowball sampling method, was an early study on women’s use of cellular phones. Even in this early study, it was found that men and women used it for different purposes, with for instance, using cellular phone to perform their ‘natural’ domestic duties, termed ‘remote mothering’ (1993, p. 145), a term becoming popular with the spread of mobile phones (Lim 2014), while ‘working parallel shifts’ (Rakow & Navarro 1993, p. 145) rather than ‘double shifts’ previously performed by working women. They were glad to have the mobile phone to balance their work and domestic responsibilities concurrently, with women continuing to perform their subordinate, expected gender roles.

Lim (2014) argues that mobile technologies have assisted women in performing their domestic and professional work duties efficiently and effectively. Yet, mobile technologies have not actually eliminated or lessened women’s burdens, but rather added more. It was found for instance, that there is a high uptake of mobile phones by school students in Japan primarily to contact their mothers, because of the traditionally stronger communication between a mother and child (in a country in which fathers often work long hours) (Matsuda 2009, p. 67). Hence, mothers were compelled to have their mobile phones with them at all times, prepared to attend to the needs of their children or perform ‘remote mothering’ duties. Discussing Matsuda’s (2009) findings, Hjorth (2008, p. 85) points out that Japanese mothers’ roles as ‘good wives and wise mothers’ were reinforced with the introduction of mobile phones to their children because they allow mothers to remain ‘on call’ all the time.

A study conducted by Wajcman, Bittman and Brown (2009, p. 9) on the impact of mobile phones on work/life balance or ‘home-to-job and job-to-home spill over’,

conducted with 1358 individuals in Australia, found that both men and women recognised the importance of keeping in touch with family and relatives despite physical distances. However, women made more calls for social purposes than men. Hence, it is concluded that, ‘rather than fragmenting time […] mobile phone practices are strengthening and deepening personal relationships; building durable social bonds’ (2009, p. 20).

These feminist scholars investigating telephone and mobile phone use by women conclude that the differences between men and women in their use of the technology do not result from the technology itself, but from the different tasks assigned to them in their socio-economic and cultural environments. For example, since women are generally expected to maintain family bonds and social relationships, while attending to domestic activities such as childcare, they use telephones or mobile phones to carry out those assigned ‘natural’ tasks (Rakow 1992; Rakow & Navarro 1993; Van Zoonen 1992). Rakow and Navarro (1993) add that,

There is nothing inherent in the technology that requires women and men to use it differently. It is gender ideology, operating within a particular political and economic context that leads to women and men living different lives and using technology differently (Rakow & Navarro 1993, p. 155).

More than two decades ago, Rakow and Navarro (1993, p. 145) predicted that the mobile phone was ‘likely to reproduce gender inequalities’. The current study examines how the situation has evolved and in what respects, in a specific culture and geographic location in Eastern Sri Lanka.

The maintenance of family and kinship relationships has been the most sought out benefit from mobile phones by female mobile users in many developing countries, often having leapfrogged to mobile technology without first going through landline telephones. They also use it for emergencies and for personal safety and security (Bayes, Braun & Akhter 1999; Castells 2006; De Silva, Pulasinghe & Panditha 2012; GSMA Connected Women & Altai Consulting 2015; Hafkin, Huyer & Press 2006; Handapangoda & Kumara 2013; LIRNEasia 2012; Murphy & Priebe 2011; Schuler, Islam & Rottach 2010; Tacchi, Kitner & Crawford 2012; Wanasundera 2012; Wei & Lo 2006; Zainudeen & Galpaya 2015).

Men also value mobile phones for kin-keeping purposes, yet use them more for professional or instrumental purposes than women (Hafkin, Huyer & Press 2006; Lemish & Cohen 2005; Murphy & Priebe 2011; Sylvester 2016; Zainudeen 2012). However, no difference was found between men and women in their actual use of telephones in certain Asian countries (Zainudeen, Iqbal & Samarajiva 2010). In Thailand, for instance, men were found to spend more time than women maintaining social relationships using mobile phones than for instrumental purposes with no significant difference between men and women in India or Sri Lanka. In Pakistan and the Philippines however, women used the mobile phone for social relationship maintenance more often than men.

Expanding and strengthening social networks among natal family members, relatives and friends have been some of the main contributions of mobile phones to women’s empowerment in developing countries. In Bangladesh, India, Kenya, Pakistan and Vietnam, where women leave their natal families after marriage to live with their in-laws, mobile phones allow women to receive emotional support and reassurance and ask for help when needed. In Kenya, women make more personal calls to their siblings than to their husbands (Doron 2012b; Handapangoda & Kumara 2013; Hoan, Chib & Mahalingham 2016; Jouhki 2013; LIRNEasia 2012; Murphy & Priebe 2011; Tacchi, Kitner & Crawford 2012; Tenhunen 2014b).

Married women commonly contact their mothers for advice (Moyal 1992; Rakow 1992), to the extent that Rakow (1992) found calls between mothers and daughters to be more frequent than any others. The women in Tacchi, Kitner and Crawford (2012) were attached to their mobile phones because they could talk to their married daughters almost daily. Hence, they kept their mobile phones tucked into their blouses under their saris, indicating their intimacy with the device and the comfort it could bring. Indian women appreciated that they could contact their natal families in secret from their in-laws, for example, by talking in a private location in which they could not be overheard (Doron 2012b; Tacchi, Kitner & Crawford 2012; Tenhunen 2014b).

Women in Sri Lanka and Myanmar used mobile phones to gather information about their children and husbands (Handapangoda & Kumara 2013; Zainudeen & Galpaya 2015). Women in Sri Lanka could communicate better with friends or make

new acquaintances (Handapangoda & Kumara 2013). Yet, women in India were less inclined to talk to their female friends (Tenhunen 2014b), probably due to most women participating in Tenhunen’s (2014b) study being unemployed with restricted movements outside their homes and neighbourhoods.

Tenhunen (2014b) discusses that women seeking general news from other parties strengthen their kinship bonds and keep their communication channels open. Ease of communication facilitates later emotional or economic support as acknowledged by Bourdieu (2001) in terms of social capital- an important resource for women - as it brings them safety and assistance when needed (Handapangoda & Kumara 2013; Tacchi, Kitner & Crawford 2012).

The mobile phone is considered a solution to information poverty, allowing. housebound women in the Global South to obtain timely, up-to-date and accurate information on health, electricity, water and security services, and information from administrative and political authorities (Aminuzzaman, Baldersheim & Jamil 2003; Goggin & Clark 2009; Handapangoda & Kumara 2013; Lee 2009). Mobile phones assist women to organise doctors’ visits (Sylvester 2016), obtain assistance when facing illnesses or deaths in the family (Asongu & De Moor 2015; Comfort & Dada 2009) and contact others within their social networks when seeking suitable marriage partners and marriage negotiations for their children (Tenhunen 2008), reducing travel costs and leading to more efficient outcomes and actions.

One study conducted on mobile phone use by women found that in addition to using mobile Internet for their online businesses, Vietnamese brides in Singapore used their Internet enabled mobile phones for their domestic responsibilities and to better perform their expected roles as wives and mothers (Hoan, Chib & Mahalingham 2016). They browsed mobile Internet for cookery recipes and for health or beauty tips while carrying out domestic responsibilities. However, rather than arguing that existing gender inequalities were reinforced in the women’s use of mobile phones, the researchers conclude that it has improved women’s psychological well-being, self- confidence and marital satisfaction while empowering them to enhance the capabilities needed to be proud, satisfied and respected as responsible wives and mothers. Even though the women did not gain full freedom of choice, they gained a form of restricted agency by achieving their desire of becoming a ‘superior traditional woman in the

domestic space’ (Hoan et al 2016, p. 8). The researchers further argue that women’s agency and empowerment do not necessarily mean women acquiring equal rights to men or gender equality in decision-making as discussed in Western feminism, because women have achieved what is valuable in their lives- to be idealised mothers and wives - by enhancing their capabilities.

The mobile phone is identified as a source of entertainment for women. For example, Sri Lankan women who had been heavily dependent on electronic media (television, radio) may be able to interact with reality TV programs to cast their votes, thus engaging with electronic media more actively at low cost and escaping from everyday boredom, loneliness and isolation without leaving their homes. Some have enjoyed taking photos using their camera phones (Handapangoda & Kumara 2013).

Hence, women in the Global South have expanded their social circles and support networks accessing information and entertainment sources using mobile phones. Thus, the mobile phone has become an actual and potential instrument of empowerment for women allowing them to expand their life choices (Handapangoda & Kumara 2013, p. 381).

3.2.1.1 Barriers to social empowerment

One of the main barriers to women’s use of mobile phones for social relationship maintenance is the cost of services. As Bourdieu (2001) states, since no market value can be assigned to women’s social capital gained or maintained via mobile phones, they are often scolded or ridiculed by men about their telephone or mobile phone. Another challenge is women’s deprivation of access to mobile technologies, resulting in isolation when unable to contact or receive emotional support from family members and friends - particularly if they live a significant distance from them (National Study Findings 2015). Wallis (2015) found that a young, rural Chinese woman had her smart phone broken by her husband who smashed it on the floor during an argument, preventing her from obtaining emotional support from friends as she could not access social media and could only buy a basic mobile handset as a replacement.

Married women in India face difficulties in communicating even with their own parents or siblings, because their husbands and in-laws do not allow women to contact or visit their relatives, fearing their family secrets and private information may

be leaked to others by the women. Some women have not been allowed to visit their natal families as a repercussion of their frequent communication with relatives (Doron & Jeffrey 2013; Tacchi, Kitner & Crawford 2012). Tenhunen (2014b), however, did not find frequent phone calls a replacement to visits.

In Handapangoda and Kumara (2013), 80% of the women studied did not contact religious leaders, such as Buddhist monks, over their mobile phones while more than half thought it inappropriate to invite relatives and friends for formal events or contact children’s school teachers over the mobile phone. They believed using their mobile phones for such activities was impersonal and too casual and feared the receiver would consider it disrespectful. This indicates how certain socio-cultural practices or norms in the community make mobile phone use inappropriate. Since Nigeria has a strong oral culture, demonstrated by the proverb ‘speech is in the face’, many women felt their relationships with extended family members had weakened via phone communication because they could only hear the other parties. This made them feel isolated and emotionally unsatisfied, weakening their mutual dependence essential for communal survival (Comfort & Dada 2009).

Social maintenance is considered a traditional responsibility of women in developing countries (Aminuzzaman 2002; Momsen 2004; Moser 1993). In this respect, mobile phones have enhanced the effectiveness of women’s agency, assisting them to cope with their responsibilities, more than enhancing the transformative forms of agency, such as challenging and changing their traditional roles and responsibilities (Kabeer 2005).