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IT`sa woman`s world
Business Standard - India
Panel discusses new-age careers for women in technology
Women seem to be giving men a run for their money in every
profession today. This holds true even in the technology
sector, which was till recently dominated by the male
fraternity.
In fact, technology seems to be creating new-age careers for
women in sectors ranging from the number-crunching banking
to the research-oriented medicine.
Says Jayanthi Sivaswami, associate professor, International
Institute of Information Technology (Hyderabad), “Around 31
per cent of the workforce in India today constitutes of
women, of which 19 per cent are in the IT sector.” Sivaswami
was speaking at a panel discussion on ‘Technology enables
new-age careers for women,’ organised in the city on
Thursday.
“The IT revolution is gender-neutral unlike other
revolutions like the Industrial Age that pushed women down
the food chain. That’s why, today, women have jobs not only
in the ubiquitous ITeS sector but also in banking, health,
training and education,” she says.
Elaborating with an example, Sivaswami says, “For instance,
we at the IIIT, have done research with the L V Prasad Eye
Institute and found out that Hyderabad has become the
diabetes capital of the country. This way, therefore, women
can use technology in the field of medicine for profiling
various diseases like cancer and AIDS.”
However, she feels that obedience and sensitivity should not
become a woman’s weak points.
“Women are understood to bring sensitivity, sincerity,
obedience, good interpersonal skills and multi-tasking
abilities to a job. They should, however, not let these be
used as weaknesses.”
Akila Jaikumar, global head, competency excellence group,
Virtusa, believes, “A career choice does not boil down to
monetary benefits only. A good career should also enable
women to work with dignity and security.”
Talking about how technology can be used for the maximum
benefit, Jaikumar says, “Technology creates new-age careers
for women as it enables them to do work that does not
necessarily depend on physical strength. Even in the
agricultural sector women can use technology in the form of
drip irrigation or Internet which not only eases production
process but also facilitates easy marketing.”
Listing out the pluses of being techno-savvy, she says,
“Today, a woman can even become an entrepreneur by working
from home because of technology. This apart, technology also
enables women to venture into different fields like
photography with the help of digital cameras, for which they
need not undergo any professional training.”
“Technology is here to stay. It is prudent for women to
become technology-friendly and be open to learning new
skills on the job,” she says.
According to Rama Devi, president, Association of Lady
Entrepreneurs of Andhra Pradesh (Aleap), although technology
is presumed to replace manual labour and therefore lead to a
shortage of jobs, “it does create new avenues for people to
explore.” |
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