IT for Women's Development

By Meera Joseph

Information Technology (IT) field has shifted its focus from mere software and hardware engineering to include the ‘C’ aspect – the ‘communication’ technologies. The cultural attitudes of women are impediments to realising the full potential of women in ICT. Women need IT and ICTs, in spite of all the barriers they face. Information Technology field has opened new opportunities for women in service sectors such as call centres and data entry jobs. The ‘gendered’ division of labour is emerging in the IT field with very few women in managerial and software development fields and more women involved merely in displaying information electronically. Women especially in the disadvantaged communities have not been able to keep abreast with the rapidly changing technology due their cultural backgrounds. There was gendered exclusion of women from studying science and mathematics till recently in most developing countries. This cultural stereotype led to fewer women studying IT and subsequently seeking IT jobs. This led to low participation of women in IT, low professional development and few skilled women in the IT field. The increase in mathematical expertise amongst women in countries such as India, Singapore and China, has been attributed to the success of IT women-power. In spite of this, skilled women make up a small percentage of the total IT workforce in these countries. More than education, language and culture have been barriers for women unlike men. It is important to cultivate the use of official languages other than English to develop software.  This would probably encourage more women from both urban and rural communities to enter the IT field. Professional women can also contribute by mentoring and supporting other women to women to choose IT as a career. Some useful links for Science and Maths online education are given below.

http://www.easycalculation.com/

http://www.mathguru.com/

http://www.vedicmathsindia.org/

http://www.indianmathonline.com/

http://www.sciencemag.org/

http://classroom.jc-schools.net/sci-units/

http://www.sciencenews.org/