Gender in the ICT industry

ICT is a highly technical field encompassing all advanced technologies with a few women participating in the workforce. I am one of those women who embarked on this challenging journey.

In as much as the world is opening so many doors for women in the form of bursaries and mentorship programmes, it is unfortunate I never encountered those chances when I was still in school, and in Zimbabwe today it is still a rare occurrence.

Some countries have managed to recognise that the major problem is at grass root level. This is where a teacher mocks a boy for being beaten by a girl when she achieves a higher mark. Self-esteem is moulded at such an early stage thus the caretakers need to be both technologically and psychologically equipped, with sound policies in place.

Hendrik Ibsen clearly highlighted one of the major concerns when it comes to women in ICT, that most of the policy-makers are male. Policies will never meet the needs of women including the challenges they meet in the industry. There is need for formulation of policies, ensuring female participation, education and training in ICTs. Technology has never been traditionally associated with women, furthermore, women are under-represented in all decision-making structures in ICTs.

I must admit I was blessed, I loved science and maths, my family supported me and I was told the stars are within my reach. My heart further goes out to the child who after successfully overcoming these obstacles cannot get funding because in Zimbabwe the bursaries are few and usually awarded to undeserving privileged students.

The worst part of it all is after jumping over these hurdles throughout the education of a girl-child, there is no happy ending as industry and business is yet to become open-

minded to women. Women have to go extra miles to prove they are as competent as their male counterparts. What great difference it would make if even that small minority of women in the ICT workforce had a voice to be able to give other generations a chance.

This is the time to realise that even if men and women were created differently, technology knows no gender, no boundary and no prejudices, and therefore it requires a dedication that does not know these either. All that is required is a great mind to take us to a higher level in ICT and great minds are as common to men as they are to women. These minds are great because they refused to be locked in boxes of pre-defined misconceptions. So in order to unlock the potential in every one of us, we need a paradigm shift. We need to develop a new culture of refraining from attaching

gender to growth, achievement, development, decisions and any form of advancement. ITC Correspondent

Information Communication Technologies have a continuing and dynamic presence in our society, impacting on the present and the future. We at The Zimbabwean want to invest in this field by setting up of an ICT Section within the newspaper. Each week we will print interesting articles that look at ICT-related developments through contributions from a network of ICT researchers, students, entrepreneurs and business leaders.

The section is open to interested contributors who can email their contributions to the Editor of the ICT Section at this email address: editor@thezimbabwean.co.uk

You can also follow our twitter page @ZimbabweanICT which provides interesting global news in the ICT field.