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Our Bureau

Chennai March 12 `eWIT' isn't the latest in brain chip technology whose transplant can make one the witty wise cracking life of the party. But it is an intelligent idea, all right. An association of women in the IT (information technology) sector, eWIT stands for `Empowering Women in IT'.

Conceptualised by a group of women IT professionals, it seeks to "To be the preferred forum for interchange of ideas and for pioneering initiatives so as to unleash the potential of women and drive their growth in the IT industry". At the meet arranged recently in the city to mark its first birthday, the discussions ranged from topics that subtly and not so subtly made the inclusion of women at senior levels an issue, how could flexi jobs help when time off became imperative and in what ways could women empower themselves, personally and professionally, to stay on top of things.

As the keynote address emphasised, IT is expected to be one third of the Indian exports while being 7.5 per cent of India GDP growth and is currently employing close to two million Indian professionals. In all this where are the women?

It's a healthy trend and the inclusion of women in the field is growing. In 1993, it was 10 per cent and in 1998, it moved to 18 per cent and today it is 21 per cent of the total employed workforce.

At the panel discussion on `Role of industry, society and Government in increasing the share and sustainability of women in IT / ITES', an interesting but often overlooked point was underlined by Ms Srimathi Shivashankar, Diversity Office, Infosys.

"While we are here to talk about what the Government, corporate and society can do to help us do better, it is also time to see what women can do to help themselves.

Many times women can exclude themselves if they just don't want to make it to the top," she said.

Quoting statistics, generated by Catalyst, the premier research organisation, in different Fortune 500 companies, that have shown that businesses with women at senior levels have an ROI, 35 per cent higher, than those companies that didn't, she emphasised that women must aspire higher.

Stress was another topic that was paid attention too. What adds to it and how are women in the IT and ITES sector, especially vulnerable to it formed the crux of the session.

As one panellist pointed out, "Stress is a given in any field. So women must learn to live and work around it."

While most of the perspectives offered weren't of the overtly critical variety, the solutions given to some of the questions that the audience had were practical. For instance, when one member wanted to know how she could study while working, the idea of doing correspondence courses also saw a few minutes being devoted to check how universities can revamp courses already being offered to make them more updated and effective.

Of course, more time could have been devoted to discussing ideas of data protection so that flexi jobs could allow people to contribute as well as they would in the general office atmosphere and beat a little less around family concerns like children that made women take breaks.

More Stories on : Gender | Industry Associations

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