Gender, the State, and Informal Self-Employment : Perspectives from the Mobile Telecommunication Industry in Cameroon

This paper examines the intersection of formality, informality, structures of power, gender, and social norms in Cameroon's mobile telecommunication industry and investigates the reasons for the over-representation of informal self-employed women at the base of the mobile telecommunication industry in the country. The findings suggest that the country's mobile telecommunication industry is a “spaghetti bowl” where formality, informality, gender, structures of power, and social norms are intertwined. In Cameroon's mobile telecommunication industry, there is no static division between formality and informality, but a connection between formality and informality that ensures the unity and totality of the airtime credit distribution system. Self-employment in the Cameroonian mobile telecommunication industry is gendered