Women remain strikingly underrepresented in the public sphere worldwide, whether in traditional news media or in politics, and particularly so in many fragile democracies. This column uses data on almost 9,000 parliamentary races since 2001 to study how the provision of free access to a social media platform, Facebook, impacted female political representation in 17 sub-Saharan African countries. The findings suggest that the deployment of free access significantly increased female political representation. Political parties realigning their endorsement strategy to shifting gender norms is an important explanation for this.
The year 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the UN’s adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, setting out a roadmap for achieving gender equality, notably in terms of “participation in the decision-making process and access to power” (United Nations 1995). Three decades later, this objective remains unfulfilled. Indeed, despite significant progress since the 1995 Declaration, women remain starkly underrepresented in electoral positions, comprising today only 27% of parliamentarians globally (IPU 2025). Moreover, the 2024 electoral ‘super-year’, when 59 countries and roughly half of the world population were called to the polls, confirmed that the upwards trend was slowing down, if not marking a break, as this figure exhibited its lowest growth rate in almost a decade (+0.3 percentage points).
In parallel, the past 20 years have seen social media and mobile internet revolutionise interpersonal communication, causing profound societal changes. Among others, these shifts have hastened the transformation of gender norms (Washington and Marcus 2022) and reconfigured modes of political communication (Manacorda and Tesei 2020), with measurable effects on both dominant and marginalised populations (Guriev et al. 2021, Donati 2023). Collectively, these dynamics have generated considerable potential to advance women’s political empowerment and promote more gender-equitable political representation.
In our recent paper (Hatte et al. 2025), we explore how a large positive access shock to a major social media platform (Facebook) reshaped deeply rooted gender inequalities in political representation. In particular, we answer this question in the context of 17 sub-Saharan African countries over the 2001-2022 period, leveraging the staggered introduction of Free Basics, a zero-rating policy allowing mobile users to access a Facebook-centered version of the internet without incurring data charges.
A gateway to the internet: Measuring the connectivity effects of Facebook’s Free Basics in sub-Saharan Africa
A necessary prior for online platforms to exert social or political influence is digital participation. While mobile internet usage remains low in sub-Saharan Africa – only 22% of the population used it actively in 2021, compared to a global average of 55% (GSMA 2022) – this is no longer primarily due to infrastructure gaps. The share of the population without coverage fell from 50% in 2014 to just 16% in 2022 (GSMA 2022). Instead, the high cost of mobile data remains a major barrier: in 2021, one gigabyte cost an average of 3.4% of monthly GDP per capita (GSMA 2022). This combination of improved infrastructure, persistent affordability constraints, and a large yet-to-connect population created a market for zero-rating policies, which allow users to access selected internet services without data charges. Leading among these is Free Basics, which enables SIM card holders from partner mobile operators to use the Facebook app and a bundle of other services without paying for data nor maintaining an active plan. First launched in Zambia in 2014, Free Basics has since expanded to over 60 low-income countries, many in sub-Saharan Africa (Nothias 2020).
Leveraging Afrobarometer survey data and variation in respondents’ exposure to Free Basics, driven by the location of partner operator antennas, we find strong evidence of a connectivity boost, reflected in both reported internet and social media use. As shown in Figure 1, social media usage as an information source increases noticeably after just two years of Free Basics coverage, reaching a 15.6 percentage point rise after six years. Compared to a baseline of 12.6% in areas without mobile internet access, this represents more than a twofold increase.
Figure 1 Effect of Free Basics availability on social media use, over years of exposure
Notes: This figure presents OLS estimates for the effect of Free Basics on social media consumption, differentiated by years since treatment. The unit of observation is a survey respondent (Afrobarometer rounds 6-8). The dependent variable is binary indicator set to 1 if the respondent reports consuming social media as a source of information. Bars represent 95% confidence intervals.
From connectivity to candidacy: How digital access shifted party strategy and boosted women’s representation
Large connectivity shocks have been shown to produce notable political consequences by lowering the cost of communication and mobilisation, thereby boosting government disapproval and demand for democratic change. Can such shocks benefit women, the most strikingly underrepresented population group in politics? Using a modern difference-in-differences framework, we show that constituencies are 10.2 percentage points more likely to elect a female member of parliament (MP) in the second election following the local introduction of Free Basics (see Figure 2). No effect is observed in the first election.
Figure 2 Effect of Free Basics availability on female MP election
Notes: This figure presents the LP-DiD estimates for the effect of Free Basics on the likelihood of electing a female MP. The unit of observation is an electoral race, i.e. a constituency×election year. The dependent variable is a binary indicator set to 1 if a woman wins the election. Bars represent 95% confidence intervals.
One might expect that reduced communication costs would advantage minor parties or independents, who often lack traditional media visibility. Surprisingly, the results are entirely driven by new female candidates endorsed by established political parties. In the second election post-Free Basics, we observe a marked increase in the number of women endorsed by major parties (+0.23), while endorsements of male candidates decline (-0.36) – indicating a clear shift in party strategy.
Two additional findings support this interpretation. First, Figure 3 shows that the effect on electing female MPs aligns precisely with the political cycle: no impact is seen in the first election, regardless of timing, but a significant effect appears in the second election. The only exception is when the second election occurs five years after the introduction of Free Basics’, likely because the first election happened too soon for any meaningful exposure to take place. Second, we observe that male MPs from parliamentary parties see a sharp decline in their electoral performance after Free Basics is introduced: their winning margins shrink by 5.2 percentage points in the first election. Their lead over the best-performing female candidate also drops, by 3.5 points in the first election and 9.6 in the second.
Together, these results suggest that access to Facebook weakened the position of established male candidates in the first election, prompting parties to renew their candidate base in the next cycle. This shift – marked by a rise in female endorsements – paved the way for significant gains in gender-equal political representation.
Figure 3 Effects of Free Basics availability on female MP election, over years of exposure
Notes: This figure presents the LP-DiD estimates for the effect of Free Basics on the likelihood of electing a female MP, over years of exposure to Free Basics. The unit of observation is an electoral race, i.e. a constituency × election year. The dependent variable is a binary indicator set to 1 if a woman wins the election. Bars represent 95% confidence intervals.
Networks of change
What explains the decline in electoral performance of established male candidates – particularly relative to female contender – after the introduction of Free Basics?
To address this, we draw on Afrobarometer survey data on political attitudes and social media use. In line with prior research (Manacorda and Tesei 2020, Guriev et al. 2021, Donati 2023) we find that social media users exhibit greater political defiance than those less reliant on these platforms. In our sample, social media users are 16.8% less likely to report trust in parliament and 6.9% more likely to believe that MPs are corrupt. Crucially, social media users also display more egalitarian gender attitudes. They are 8.7% more likely to support equal political opportunities for women, 20.5% less likely to believe men should be prioritised in the labour market, and 5.6% less likely to say women should handle household duties. Additionally, they are 3.5% more likely to support equal land rights for women. These shifts help explain why female candidates – especially those new to the scene – gained ground following the rollout of Free Basics.
However, the influence of social media depends on the content and structure of online networks. To analyse this, we use Facebook’s Social Connectedness Index (SCI) (Bailey et al. 2018), which measures how connected regions are via Facebook friendships. This allows us to test two hypotheses:
- Social media has less transformative impact where online networks mirror offline ones. Indeed, as the share of Facebook friends located within the user’s own region increases, both the association between social media use and support for female political participation, and Free Basics’ effect on electing female MPs, decline sharply. Moving from the first to the fourth quartile in local friend share reduces Free Basics’ impact by 88%, nearly nullifying it.
- Exposure to progressive content amplifies social media’s influence. Combining the SCI with the Women’s Power Index (Vogelstein and Bro 2021), which captures female political representation globally, we compute each region’s exposure to areas with higher female political empowerment. Greater connectedness to such regions significantly strengthens both egalitarian gender attitudes and Free Basics’ political impact.
Conclusion: Connectivity, content, and the conditions for norm change
To conclude, our research confirms the importance of exposure in fostering norms shifts and highlights how communications technologies can accelerate such transitions. Connectivity programmes that lower access costs effectively increase digital participation, and, therefore, can serve as powerful vehicles of norms adoption. Nonetheless, our findings also highlight that connectivity alone is not enough. By documenting the pivotal role of content and network diversity, we emphasise that digital inclusion policies should not aim solely to connect people, but also to ensure that users are exposed to diverse, accurate, and meaningful content.
Beyond individual attitudes, our study points to the critical role of public and political actors in translating norms shifts to actual societal evolutions. While social media fosters civic and democratic engagement, it is ultimately the responsiveness of established political parties to shifting voter preferences that determines whether these changes are reflected in political outcomes.
Looking ahead, the evolving digital landscape–shaped by artificial intelligence, algorithmic personalisation, and limited content moderation–raises new questions about technology’s role in shaping political and social dynamics. As digital platforms continue to evolve, understanding their impact on democratic participation and norm formation remains a vital area for future research.
References
Bailey, M, R Cao, T.Kuchler, J. Stroebel and A Wong (2018), “Social connectedness: Measurement, determinants, and effects”, Journal of Economic Perspectives 32 (3): 259–280.
Donati, D (2023), “Mobile internet access and political outcomes: Evidence from South Africa”, Journal of Development Economics 162: 103073.
GSMA (2022), The state of mobile internet connectivity 2022.
Guriev, S, N Melnikov and E Zhuravskaya (2021), “3G Internet and confidence in government”, The Quarterly Journal of Economics.
Hatte, S, J Loper, T Taylor (2025), “Connection the unconnected: Facebook access and female political representation in sub-Saharan Africa”, CEPR Discussion Paper 20116.
IPU (2025), Women in parliament: 1995-2025.
Manacorda, M and A Tesei (2020), “Liberation technology: Mobile phones and political mobilization in Africa”, Econometrica 88 (2): 533–567.
Nothias, T (2020), “Access granted: Facebook’s Free Basics in Africa”, Media, Culture & Society 42 (3): 329–348.
United Nations (1995), Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women.
Vogelstein, R B and A Bro (2021), Womens power index, Council on Foreign Relations
Washington, K and R Marcus (2022), Hastags, memes and selfies. Can social media and online activism shift gender norms, ALIGN Report, London: Overseas Development Institute.
