Introduction

“When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion”. This proverb serves as a crucial entry point for discussions regarding women, gig work, and the platform economy.[1] In Africa, the narrative of platform employment transcends mere technology, applications, ratings, and wages. It pertains to power, the allocation of risk, the absorption of crises, the provision of care, the visibility to markets, and who remains invisible to the law. The digital economy is often seen as a new frontier for women’s economic empowerment, unlocking flexible, digital, borderless, and entrepreneurial opportunities for income, skills, and visibility. (Paracha et al., 2025; Savita et al., 2025). However, for African women, the same economy can become a digital extension of old inequalities, leading to informal employment lacking social protection, unstable income, so- called flexibility that offers no real autonomy, and “opportunity” that could exacerbate debt, gender- based violence, caregiving responsibilities, and precarity.

The question, therefore, is not simply whether the digital economy is beneficial or detrimental for women. It is whether the digital economy is being built as a pathway to dignified livelihoods or as a new architecture of extraction and exploitation. Across Africa, women are increasingly turning to digital platforms because platform-mediated work is often presented as more compatible with caregiving obligations, labour market exclusion, and the pursuit of income autonomy. Yet this expansion is unfolding within deeply unequal labour markets where gender gaps in pay, labour and social protection, and digital access continue to persist. Sustainable Stories Africa captures this contradiction clearly: women are entering platform work, but the core question is whether they are entering on equitable terms.

The platform economy is a familiar narrative presented in a contemporary guise.

Although framed as digital innovation, the platform economy often repackages older patterns of labour informalisation, casualisation, and risk-shifting through the infrastructure of technology rather than representing an entirely new labour formation (Coletto and Dimitriadis,2026). Platform work is typically structured around brief, short- term tasks, facilitated by algorithms and defined through contractual agreements that categorise individuals as independent contractors instead of employees. The ILO’s examination of platform employment indicates that while platform labour may create new income opportunities, it also raises challenging issues regarding control, algorithmic management, and employment status (ILO, 2026).