Women in the digital economy
The digital economy can provide women with a means of earning a
living, even if they are otherwise excluded from the traditional labour
markets. This is especially true for those in the developing world,
where cultural bias, mobility restrictions, security, and time
limitations often prevent women from taking their rightful place in the
workforce.
The key benefit of the digital economy is that it allows and
encourages remote working, where gender may not matter as much as in the
physical economy. It opens a world of opportunities for women in poor
countries.
And yet the barriers to taking part in the digital economy can often
be as difficult to surmount as those that prevent women from engaging in
the traditional economy. These restrictions and constraints can prevent
women from taking advantage of the 'digital dividend'. One key challenge
is unequal access to the internet.
According to Lead ICT Policy Specialist, Transport and ICT GP at the
World Bank, Mavis Ampah, most of the focus in the past decade has been
on increasing developing countries' connectivity to the digital world.
This has seen rapid improvement, especially in the area of mobile
penetration. But when it comes to internet access there is still a stark
gap.
Hurdles
In the upcoming WDR report on the digital economy, it will be
reported that only 18% of African men have access to the internet. For
women, the connectivity gap is even wider: only 12% of African women
have access to the internet. Another obstacle is getting women educated
about the digital world.
Andela is one company that has systematically designed a business
model to help women overcome these hurdles to participation. Its
business model centres on placing remote software developers with
Fortune 500 companies and start-ups. But it also specifically aims to
train female developers in Africa.
According to its co-founder and COO, Christina Sass, "The training
available is woefully inadequate compared to the opportunities that are
out there." She said that in some computer science university programs
in Africa, zero time is spent actually coding, a critical skill in the
sector.
To address this, Andela has developed a rigorous training program for
these women, including specific software development training and soft
skills training
This lack of skills training is a common barrier to entry for women
into the IT sector all over the developing world. "Many countries have
outdated education systems which give no practical skills, so we need to
find initiatives that are online and agile," said Lead IT Officer,
Business Solutions Information and Technology Solutions at the World
Bank Group, Stela Mocan.
Mocan previously helped the Government of Moldova put together a
program to draw more women into the IT sector.
The resulting GirlsGoIT program combines training in basic coding and
critical thinking and problem solving. After initial success in Moldova,
especially targeting rural women, it is now regionalizing and expanding
into Ukraine, Turkey and Romania.
While better training enables women to get jobs in IT, it can be
expensive. One private sector company that has come up with an
innovative solution to this is Coders Trust.
This firm provides microfinance and training for female IT workers in
Bangladesh. It then helps them pitch for and win work on the rapidly
growing online freelance portals such as Elance and Upwork.
Education
"The main way to get more women on to these sites is to give them
more education, and the only way to reach women in rural areas is
through online courses," said the founder and CEO of Coders Trust,
Ferdinand Kjærulff. A former Captain in the Danish army, he pioneered a
recovery project in Iraq bringing internet and e-learning to the
citizens of the region in which he was stationed. This project led to
Coders Trust.
But perhaps the biggest hindrance comes from a dearth of role models.
If young women and their families do not see other women in these roles,
it is difficult for them to even contemplate applying for the training
courses. As part of its process, Andela calls on the women it trains and
places with employers to give back by being a mentor to potential new
applicants. This problem is particularly acute in Afghanistan and
Pakistan, where conflict has exacerbated traditional cultural barriers
to women in the workplace. Yet, even there, women are finding ways to
enter the digital work place.
Jana El-Horr, a social development specialist at the World Bank is
working on two pilots empowering women by including them in the digital
economy in both countries.
According to El-Horr, the key to her program is the inclusion of the
whole community and letting families know about the opportunities. In
this way, she said, they can change the view that the only jobs that
women can have are as teachers or nurses.
Ironically, working in the digital space in conflict-affected
countries can be much safer than working in more traditional jobs. Thus
far, the program has enrolled 75 women in one of the pilots, and has
achieved a 90% retention rate and a 60% employment rate for those who
have taken part. It is now being scaled up to include up to 1,000 women.
What these programs ultimately achieve, through participation in the
digital economy, is female empowerment. The nature of the digital
economy brings huge opportunities for participation, more so in some
cases than in the traditional economy. The barriers to getting women
involved are different to those barriers that prevent women from
participating more fully in the traditional economy. But as these
programs are finding out, these barriers are not insurmountable.
-World Bank
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