Women traders 2.0 and the digital economy in Senegal: Online trade and social networks as new spaces for empowering women

Abstract

"In Senegal, the advent of social networking has led to the emergence of women merchants specializing in online sales. Behind the popular pseudonyms “Yanish Vaisselles”, “Rabyatou tontine” and “Sharisa Couture”, which attract thousands of “flowers” on the web, we find women with distinctive profiles who head up a whole chain of digitized economies, from community managers to photographers and money transfer operators. This digital ecosystem cannot be understood without looking at it from the angle of the transformation of economic relationships and the restructuring of traditional trade. How is online trade transforming economic and gender relations through the model of women entrepreneurs 2.0? What are the logics of accumulation, and their strategies for adapting to an ever-changing digital context? This article seeks to shed light on a form of female entrepreneurship brought to the fore by social networks. Our aim is to reflect on gender relations in the digital economy, and in particular the place of women in online commerce. Through a series of interviews with some of them, we will try to understand their economic logic and marketing strategies, their relationship with customer management, the risks they run with scams and the coping strategies developed by some of them. Finally, this article raises the question of the de-socialization and dehumanization of social and economic relations inherent in the digital age, in an African context where social and family relations have always been the foundation of society."

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