Bridging the digital gender Gap in rural Uzbekistan: financial literacy, smartphone adoption, and entry into the creative platform economy

Digitalisation is reshaping cultural and creative industries, yet rural women often remain excluded from the economic gains of platform-based markets. This study examines how financial literacy enables rural women in Uzbekistan to move beyond basic connectivity toward income-relevant participation in the creative platform economy, using a three-stage pathway from access (smartphone ownership) to skills (financial and digital capability) to meaningful use (creative platform engagement). A mixed-methods sequential explanatory design combined a household survey of 883 rural women across Samarkand and neighbouring regions (Jizzakh, Navoi, Bukhara, Kashkadarya) with semi-structured interviews with 27 craftswomen. Quantitative models show near-saturated smartphone ownership (93%), but substantially lower uptake of mobile payments and uneven creative platform engagement, indicating an outcomes-focused digital divide. Financial literacy consistently emerges as the strongest predictor of higher-intensity internet use, adoption of digital payments, and greater creative platform engagement, even when controlling for access and basic usage. Qualitative evidence explains these patterns: budgeting, savings, and prior credit experience function as “conversion factors” that support pricing decisions, transaction confidence, and reinvestment, while family gatekeeping, time poverty, fraud fears, and skills gaps restrict progress from access to earnings. The study contributes an outcomes-oriented measurement approach to women's platform participation and provides policy-relevant evidence for bundled interventions that integrate practical financial literacy with platform onboarding and consumer protection. The paper contributes by (1) quantifying the role of financial capability in bridging the “third-level” digital divide-translation of access into socio-economic outcomes; (2) specifying a Creative Platform Engagement Index for low-resource settings; and (3) offering evidence-based design principles for gender-responsive creative-economy programmes. Findings will inform national strategies on digital inclusion and the creative economy and provide replicable metrics for Central Asia and comparable regions.