Increase the Number of Women using ICT

Women are underrepresented in the IT industry. In order to rectify this, enrollment rates of women in IT and Computer Science courses in tertiary institutions must increase. Despite the fact that there is a labour shortage in the IT sector, the pool of qualified women remains small due to their low enrollment rates in relevant university courses.

WIT or Women in Information Technology is an emergent group of young Pacific women already involved in ICT and activities of the Pacific Islands Chapter of the Internet Society. The WIT aims to develop a network within the Pacific Islands of women who are ICT professionals with the primary objective of advancing women in ICT.

PICISOC will provide an important avenue or platform from which WIT can undertake projects through its network of professionals aimed at the advancement and development of women in ICT in the Pacific Region. The inevitable consequence of this will also be a gradual but important role of achieving a greater gender balancing in an industry which is currently dominated by our male counterparts. For these reasons, WIT is looking at affiliating themselves as a professional body to the PICISOC.

By pursuing similar aims and objectives of other well established “Women in Information and Communication Technology?” or WIT groups, we can contribute by enhancing the dissemination of information, providing access to knowledge and technologies primarily targeting women whilst also undertaking other issues that affect women in ICT.

PICISOC is presently looking into issues such as protecting children from the scourge of Internet pornography and other illicit materials readily available on the Internet. Organizations such as PICISOC can only achieve these objectives when both parents play an active role in protecting their children. In most circumstances, women fail in their responsibility because of their sheer lack of knowledge in ICT. Through the development of ICT skills of women, both parents/gender can become instrumental in addressing such issues.

The affiliation of WIT to PICISOC will also allow for the formulation of gender sensitive ICT policies for the Pacific Islands.


Recommendations:

Conduct smart/extensive promotion of benefits of ICT targeting women. Try to put across ideas of using ICT as a tool in upgrading their skill to keep up with technologies and for better paying job.

Increase number of free, safe, and accessible IT access points especially in rural communities. Make these amenities women and children friendly “user friendly”, especially in areas like clinics, schools, police stations, community buildings etc.
Construct easy to read ICT Training Guides with pictorials or in local languages
Provide (limited) training and support for instance via the dissemination of ICT
Training Guides, workshops with live demo.


Why increase women in IT/ICT?


By increasing women in ICT, we will have more women involved in the various work requiring ICT skills, e.g., teaching, office work, CEO etc... More ICT skilled women in the work force and in executive positions will mean more say for women. Their reach can be up to government levels and other organizations and this will also encourage more women into IT related jobs.

Many women are still in domestic employment and if the governments can install ICT stations in village communities, then ICT skills can be taught to village drop outs, (men and other women). One has to acknowledge the installation of workstations in communities in India which today is bringing wonders to the village communities. In urban areas, again, skilled ICT women (lets face the fact), are in domestic employment and throughout the day they help underage school kids in IT skills. Thus again, government, town and city councils should ensure that most urban suburbs must have computer setups so that mothers can teach underage children… Women are known to be good housewives and good financial experts when it comes to household budgets and these skills are imparted to their children. By having more women in IT means that the nation as a whole would become proficient in IT skills and knowledge.

More women in IT means that some unemployed women who reside in both rural and urban areas can use Internet to sell products that the Internet encourages people to sell from their homes. This means women in IT will help alleviate poverty both in rural and urban areas by earning more money, sending children to schools, providing more food on the table and bringing about higher standard of living.

By increasing women in IT, we can bring about self-sufficiency in a family and community. By increasing women in IT they will compete well and might be better then men in open market employment.


Gender Equality in ICT.


New technologies in the information and communications arena, especially the Internet, herald life changing opportunities and challenges for the Pacific islands countries and territories. Much of the regional response has been encapsulated in the Pacific Plan Digital Strategy, endorsed by Pacific Islands Forum leaders in 2005.
The Digital strategy notes “inequality in ICT access, with women, youth and the disadvantaged being amongst the most excluded groups and (states that) ICTs are significant tools for social and economic empowerment.”

Ministers for ICT; as key stakeholders in directing technical assistance by regional development agencies, will be aware of the social implications of their policy decisions on Pacific ICT industries.

Central to the Pacific Digital strategy promise of ICT for All is the issue of ensuring noone is left out; and ensuring no one is left out means action to bridge the technological, content and gender divides in ICT. Commitments towards gender equality have been taken up by Pacific governments in the Pacific Platform for Action on Women and Sustainable Development, which was revised in 2004 by Pacific Ministers for Women to include media and ICT as an emerging area of critical concern. The Pacific Plan also encompasses regional support for global gender commitments such as the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW 1979) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which are both reliant on ICT for effective implementation. Finally the Digital strategy takes up the gender challenge with key action areas which assist Pacific women and marginalized groups to benefit from and participate fully in a thriving Pacific digital information society for all.

Pacific ICT Ministers have an important role in ensuring the ability of Pacific women to take advantage of ICT and pass on those benefits to their families and communities. This critical role is based on the need for national policies linked to the regional Digital strategy and Pacific plan, which can deliver enabling infrastructure and user environments to cater for the differing realities of small islands states, and islanders living in urban and rural communities.

Enhancing access and participation for Pacific women grows governance through increasing women’s participation in socioeconomic and political development; reducing poverty and improving quality of life. The potential of ICT to overcome women’s isolation gives all women a voice and improves governance. The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) has been urged to commit to increase women’s access to and participation at all levels of the information society, especially in decision making processes, with specific attention to women and girls and marginalized groups such as the indigenous, persons with disabilities as well as those in least developed countries, small island and landlocked countries and economies in transition.

Mindful of the need to bring together many different synergies in order to support the Pacific Plan way forward for action on the Digital strategy; and with particular reference to the needs of women and the disadvantaged, Pacific delegates to this ministerial are requested to consider the following actions.


Recommendations:

Prioritise a regional scoping study/ies to assess the technological, content and gender gaps in Pacific ICT, in line with the Digital Strategy and Pacific Plan. Such a study will include reviews of the state of Pacific broadcasting and how ICT offer new approaches for convergence and community media.

Request CROP agencies with the involvement of the telecommunications industry, policy leaders, service providers and user organisations to organise and participate in the first regional symposium on women, media and ICT Call for national policy reviews by member countries of Forum on the impacts of implementing the ‘ICT for ALL’ challenge of the Digital strategy; with particular attention to gender challenges and marginalized groups (women, youth, aged and the disabled.)

Stress that implementation of the 9 action areas in the Digital Strategy contract should demonstrate gender concerns; in order to fulfill the recognition of the critical role of ICT in gender issues.

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