BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

Digital media “A boon for improvement in income level of

women”.
Abstract: Rise in population raises the use of internet but unproductive or no use of internet lead us to
create objectives putting focus on study of various kind of problems faced by women in their respective
profiles whether business holder, job professionals or housewives. Objective also includes the changes in
income level of all kind of women. Methodology of project work process involves use of questionnaire
and data will be collected by using email or telephonic interview method in selected area like Mumbai,
Himachal Pradesh, Punjab from all three kind of women. The data will be collected up to one year. On the
basis of statistical analysis, from current study it is expected that if all variable like lack of knowledge,
lack of computer facility, low education, and low penetration of internet is improved will lead to
improvement in problems of all kind of women and will also have positive impact on the income level of
women by using digital media. Thus it is concluded that digital media will act as boon for all kind of
women.

Introduction

Informational technology covering Digital media where use of electronic media act as communicator
between different places and people is booming field after 2000.Todays life cannot be expected without
internet. As the population increases use of internet also goes on increasing. The development in IT
profession along with advancement in technology made India the globally famous service provider.
Because of Educated, skilled professional, MNC companies are outsourcing their IT profiles to Indian
companies. India is becoming IT service provider worldwide.

Study of statistics reveled latest report 2019 India is a second most populated country of the world after
China. Population of India is projected close to 1.37 billion or 1,369 millions in 2019. Number of internet
users will reach 627 million by the end of this year. Of the total user base, 87 percent or 493 million
Indians are defined as regular users, having accessed internet in last 30 days. Nearly 293 million active
internet users reside in urban India, while there are 200 million active users in rural India, it said. Urban
areas have more use of as compare to rural area because of insufficient facility.

As shown in figure (1) showing state wise penetration of internet in India.

Fig 1

Proper use of digital media leads to increased workability, further leads to increase in productivity, which
further impact the income level. Current era is women development focused era, where digital media
plays very important role for their development. But because of lack of knowledge, facilities, education
limited its use. Urban area women have developed profile as compare to women in rural area because of
education level but still Women face lots of problems in their personal, professional life, and also related
to income. Digital media plays a beneficial profile for improving income level of women.

Keeping in mind,

Objectives of our research study are:

1) To study various kind of problems faced by women in their respective profiles.

2) To study the improvement in income level of women using digital media.

Hypothesis 1

Digital media is positively correlated with increase in income level of women.

Hypothesis 2

Digital media is positively correlated in solving problems of women in their respective profiles.

Literature Review

Critical incidents among women entrepreneurs: Personal and professional issues (2015). Vânia Maria
Jorge Nassif, Tales Andreassi and Maria José Tonelli revealed that women entrepreneurs face situation
involving strong emotions related to family members and business partners which effected the
development of their business and also revealed several cases along with professional problems
strongly affected their personal relationship.
Lorna Philip , Fiona Williams in (2018) in Journal of Rural Studies analyzed Findings draw
attention to the role and importance of fit-for-purpose broadband in promoting digital inclusion
for individuals, households and small, home based businesses: in a fast changing digital national
and global economy remote rural home based micro-businesses are at risk of being left behind.

Ismail, M. and Ibrahim, M. (2008) in Barriers to career progression faced by women Showed
various kind of significant barriers for women. This research reveals that women in various job
positions do not differ in their perceptions with regard to barriers they face for career
progression.

Vinitha johnson in his article Women and the Internet: A Micro Study in Chennai, India
concluded use of internet is more by men as compare to women. As per traditional norms,
life of women in Chennai is marginalized by their by their own anxieties, roles and beliefs
rooted in traditional norms as well as by illiteracy and economic circumstances and media
too are responsible for skewing women’s self-perceptions which hinder their use of the
Internet.

Michael I,Best and Sylvia g.Maier in gender culture and ICT use in rural south India in
2007,in his study researcher found as information and communication systematically
documented the needs of women in rural south and also hold great promise in
development and poverty reduction in rural area.

Madeline Zavodny, (2003) study resulted that Women were significantly less likely than
men to use the Internet at all in the mid-1990s, but as the penetration of internet
increases, advancement in technologies, knowledge as well facilities, use of internet
increases, but after 2000 gender gap in being online disappeared. However, once online,
women remain less frequent and less intense users of the Internet.

LAL B. SURESH(2010) in his research found its required to open opportunities for
women in service based and IT based units to enable them own manage and control
industries.. There is also need to provide more opportunities in e- related sectors to them
in higher managerial, technical positions in government and non-government agencies,
research, educational institutions in private and public sectors, without confining their
role to only call centers, telecentres, data-entry level and lower levels in the
organizations

Veland Ramadani in (2015), found This paper put an approach on women entrepreneurs in Albania
considering conditions for women entrepreneurship, perspectives for development and also problems
faced by women. Thus author gained a better picture of current motives, problems and perspectives of
Albanian women in entrepreneurship.

Hindustan times printed on the topic why there are so few women on internet, This page on Hindustan
times posted key reasons for lesser use of internet in India.

Ravodan in 2017 highlighted the importance of Gmail marketing and considered it to be a best
communication tool.
Methodology

Based on above objectives and Hypothesis, On the basis of geographical selection, we selected
three areas on the basis of penetration of internet. We selected highly penetrated areas Mumbai,
medium penetrated area Punjab and least penetrated area Himachal Pradesh.

We do selection of three kind of profiled women as Business owner, Job professionals and house
wife in each respective area. To proceed with study we prepared a structured questionnaire.
Questionnaire is having closed ended as well as dichotomous questions. We divided the
questionnaire into four parts.

1st part will be common to all kind of women and discuss about demographic profile of all kind of
women. Questions asked in 1st part will be related to their name, age, place, marital status,
education, income. 2nd part will have respective questions for own business women, 3rd part will
cover job professionals and 4th part will cover housewives. Each part is having questions related
to their profile.

For this project work we selected email method/telephonic interviews to reach all three kinds of
women. Email package will be purchased. We will do pilot study 1st by sending 500 emails to all
three kind of women in each respective area. Changes in questionnaire will be done on the basis
of responses from pilot study. Any improvements /additions or deductions will be done before
starting actual study.

After conformation by pilot study, actual study will be done which will cover sending of 1000-
5000 mails to all kind of women. If it does not give satisfactory responses then telephonic
interview will be conducted, might lead to personal interview.

On the basis of questions asked in questionnaire next step will be the conduction of seminar. All
interested women will be invited in seminar. For seminar digital marketing company will be
approached, which will give information related to digital media and marketing methods how use
of these methods will improve their income level.

Longitudinal study will be performed. Selected women are contacted via telephones/personally
visited after each month up to one year. With each visit the change in their income will be noted
down.

Statistical Analysis:

Based on response available as well as changes in income level of women, Mean will be
conducted to find standard deviations. On the basis of descriptive search we will use different
scales to study responses. Study of median for qualitative characters will be done. Correlation
/regression will be performed. For the geographical differentiation and for testing hypothesis will
use different method of hypothesis study as ANOVAs, T test, Z test suitable for the study.
Findings/Result

On the basis of questionnaire if responses are noted down for one year, and statistical tests would
be performed its thought that more responses will be received from Maximum penetrated
area(Mumbai) because of education level, advancement in technology as well because of
knowledge. Least responses are expected to be noted down from least penetrated area Himachal
Pradesh because of low literacy level, knowledge, and also low facilities of computer and also
low knowledge level. Medium responses are expected from medium penetrated area Punjab. So
on the basis of expected results acceptance or rejection of hypothesis is done.

Hypothesis 1

Digital media is positively correlated with increase in income level of women.

Selection of women on the basis of response and interest will be done, further followed by
contacts by telephones or personal meeting. The increase/decrease/ no effect of using digital
marketing methods will be detected thus hypothesis will be proved/disproved using statistical
tools and hypothesis testing significance limits.

Hypothesis 2

Digital media is positively correlated in solving problems of women in their respective

profiles.

As in questionnaire we will do study of problems faced by all three kinds of women in their
respective profiles related to their income in their personal, professional lives .After collecting of
information and filing questionnaire part every month will detect the improvements in their
problems. Using different scales and testing of median as well as hypothesis testing will further
prove or disprove the hypothesis.

Conclusion:

Digital media, the demand of today’s life. Today’s life cannot be thought without digital media.
As the penetration of internet increases, use of digital technology also increases but it’s found that
productive use of digital technology is very less. The reason behind are some variables:

Lack of computer facilities

Internet facilities

Low level of education

Low level of knowledge

If the projected study proceeded in provided manner, on different profiled women in different
areas it is concluded this will be beneficial to all involved in project process. As socially it will
benefit all women whether business holders, job professionals or house wives and will solve to
some extent their all problems related to income, personal or professional life. Marketing
company also get chance to promote their company name to increase their sales and get benefit
also. With this study researcher will also get the relevant data for the smooth functioning of
project process.

References

1) Nassif, Vânia Maria, JorgeAndreassi, TalesTonelli, Maria José,(2016), Critical incidents among
women entrepreneurs: Personal and professional issues, Revista de Administração,Vol -51.(2).212-224.

2) Philip,Lorna.,Williams, Fiona.,(2018)., Remote rural home based businesses

and digital inequalities: Understanding needs and expectations in a digitally
underserved community.Journal of Rural Studies.,pp-1-13.

3) Ismail, M. and Ibrahim, M. (2008), "Barriers to career progression faced by women", Gender in
Management, Vol. 23 No.(1).pp.51-66.

4) J.Vinitha.,(2010)., Article Women and the Internet: A Micro Study in Chennai, India., Indian Journal
of Gender Studies.,Vol-17)1.,151-163.

5) Best, Michael L.Maier, Sylvia G.(2007)., Gender, culture and ICT use in rural South India., Gender,
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7) Suresh, Lal B.(2010), Impact of information and communication technologies on gender development
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8) Ramadani, Veland.(2015)., The woman entrepreneur in Albania: An exploratory study on motivation,

problems and success factors, Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies,Vol-17,(2).,204-221.

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