Despite the ICT sector holding immense potential in regard to providing employment opportunities for women, their participation has been very low in the sector.
Experts said this recently at a round table meeting titled: ‘Use of ICT in empowering women in today's world’ organised by the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (Basis) Women's Forum
The round table meeting organized by Basis Women's Forum was held in four phases at the trade body's office in the Kawran Bazar area of the capital presided over by Basis Senior Convenor Samira Zuberi Himika.
“Although the IT sector is very promising for women, their participation is still very low,” said Samira Zuberi Himika, who is also the senior vice president of the association.
“Women's participation in the ICT sector has to be increased and for this, we need to start incorporating skills from a very early stage of their life, preferably from primary education level and schools.”
She also underscored the importance of ensuring the safety of women online against cybercrime, bullying and harassment.
According to the top brass of the trade body, women's participation should also be increased at the policy-making level, their social conditions must be improved and gender discrimination in the workplace should be eliminated.
For this, it is necessary to improve women's skills in information technology, she added.
During the roundtable, participants also highlighted the activities of the Basis Women's Forum that were undertaken to increase women's participation in Bangladesh's IT sector.
Women's participation in IT education and their career prospects and challenges, their participation in IT-based professions and business policy-making and how to inspire other women were also discussed in the round table along with sharing success stories of female IT entrepreneurs.
