During
the past decade, Information & Communication Technology as a sector has
revolutionized our world in several ways. Women in particular have been
empowered, as it has provided them new avenues for not only learning, sharing
knowledge and education but also for earning their livelihood on a
level-playing field with male counterparts.
It
is universally accepted that ICT offers tremendous potential for stimulating
economic growth, socioeconomic development and effective governance. However,
we cannot deny the fact that the benefits of ICT have been unevenly distributed
within and between countries.
In
India, the ‘digital divide’ is actually several divides in one. There is a
technological divide – ie gaps in infrastructure; then there is content divide
- nearly 70 per cent of the world’s websites are in English which excludes
local voices and views; then there is socio-economic divide between the
affluential and marginalized groups and finally there is gender divide, with
women and girls enjoying less access to information technology than men and
boys.
Gender
Divide is reflected not only in the lower numbers of women accessing and using
ICT compared with men but also large number of women dropping out from the
pipeline of ICT jobs.
When
it comes to gender issues in ICT, there are several constraints which they face
for their smooth absorption in the sector.
Obstacles
such as technical infrastructure, connection costs, computer literacy and
language skills affect both men and women.
However
several other gender-based constraints exists such as access to training and
education, time constraints due to traditional family responsibilities and
labor market bias and discrimination limit women’s full participation in paid
economic activities, thereby becoming less productive, and receiving lower
wages[1].
It
has been found by several studies that as women climb up the ladder, their
proportion decreases considerably even though a large pool of women is waiting
to go up.
Unlike
the west, where cultural diversity is the most dominant thread of diversity in
workplaces, the predominant thread of diversity in the Indian context has been
gender.
IT
companies in India in the last five years have shifted their focus to creating
a culture that fosters gender diversity to attract talent for gender balance.
We
see more companies experimenting with practices to attract fresh and experienced
women into the workforce. Focused hiring from specific campuses, targeted
campaigns, norms for balanced applications, re-employment, incentives for
hiring women, referral campaigns are some of the practices being adopted to
ensure adequate women representation.
Companies
are also now adopting innovative ways specific to the requirements of women,
based on the different stages in life. Such as safety policies; transportation
policies; sabbatical policies are nascent, but us being implemented on a
case-to-case basis in many organisations. Flexible working and extended
maternity leave as policy or practices are also being looked into by several
organizations.
Despite
all these efforts, gender balance at the managerial level and above continues
to be an area of concern for most organizations, as executive level
representation is nil or minimal in most cases.
In
order to tackle this problem, senior executives, at the board and CXO level,
are spending a significant amount of time mentoring and coaching potential
women leaders in their respective organizations. Now that the Companies Act
2012 has mandated representation of at least one women on board, more and more
companies are finding innovative ways to ensure balanced representation in leadership
roles.
India’s
internet penetration rate is expected to reach 19% by 2015, up from the current
9%. The public sector is a key catalyst for increased ICT adoption through
sectors reforms that encourage ICT acceptance, National e-Governance programs,
and the Unique Identification Development Authority of India (UIDAI) program
that will include the whole Indian population of 1.2 billion people.
Emergence of ICT on the national agenda and announcement of ICT
policies by several state governments has strengthened India’s position in the
software driven ICT sector in the world.
Engaging
women in ICT sector work is not only the right thing to do from the point of
social justice, but also in terms of smart economics. Gender diversity in high
value ICT jobs in both management and on companies’ boards is good for business
performance.
More
diverse teams make better informed decisions, leading to less risk-taking and
more successful outcomes for companies. Over time, therefore, a nation’s ICT
competitiveness depends significantly on whether and how it educates and
utilizes its female skills.
In
a world where over 95% of all jobs now have a digital component, and where
there is a large and growing skills shortage in the ICT sector, we need to get
more women involved and take interest in ICT careers.
