The Information and Communications Technology World has brought a ravishing change to our lives. The digital world has advanced a lot more than any other economy in this world. However, this growth has brought many challenges of its own. One of the challenges is gender gap. Women are underrepresented in this technology world.
Women are obtaining ICT degrees but still not enough motivated to join technology industry! Statistics says that nearly 40% of women who obtain engineering degree either don’t enter or quit their tech career in between!
We see the software, complex codes are mostly done and used by men. Is it because as technology is portrayed to be a hard industry, it scares women to venture into? It is understood that the gender differences in skills are negligible, but the women perceive that their coding skills are lower than male counterparts.
Among the largest publicly listed companies in the European Union (EU-28) in 2019, only 17.6% of executives and 6.9% of CEOs were women. According to report by Accenture, today, women are still incredibly scarce at the top, comprising only 2.8 percent of FORTUNE Global 500 CEOs. Just one in five startups has a woman founder.
Digitization Empowers Women
The digital revolution brings many opportunities to empower women take tech careers. Women exhibit superior social skills which gives them an advantage over men in today’s digital field. These social skills can be amplified by the imparting more education and digital literacy to women. The digital revolution comprising of AI, ML, Big Data, Cloud could improve women participation and bring economic and social upliftment of women. Wondering how?
With digitization, the women would overcome the mobility barrier. It would help her to work from distant location, in flexible hours. She can access training , mentor other women, expand her client base remotely.
Exceptional social skills in women can be rewarding in many digital jobs as women exhibit more sense of responsibility, better communication and more willingness to adapt to changing circumstances.
By imparting needed education in digital field, the women can enter better paying technology and management roles.
Digitization is a promising field which may open many entrepreneurship opportunities. But the gender imbalances in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), lack of social networks and financial constraints keep women away from pursuing such opportunities. Closing the gender gap will also help companies thrive in a hyper-competitive economic environment and benefit all employees.
With this said, ICT industry needs more women ! As a budding industry, that promises transforming social, economic lives globally, the ambitious women out there want to lend their hand in this magnificent move. To help women realize their real power, we need to address these challenges. Promoting digitization would prove to be a rewarding way!!
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