Afaemme Interviews

Do you think that the new Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) market, being an eminently new market, offers the same labour possibilities for men and women?

In general, men have more possibilities than women to access the labour market, since they have been socially educated to have a greater proximity to technology. Another reason is that women face different – and additional - barriers when beginning a business, such as the conciliation of family and work life, and they do not always find the necessary aid to face this problem.

Precisely in this area, the Spanish Government has shown concern for the future of women in the information technologies area when favouring - in the recently approved Law of Equality –the access of women to the new technologies, with the purpose of eliminating obstacles and facilitating their entrance to this sector and, thus, avoiding the gender digital breach that exists at present, and that has been a result of inequality.

Which do you believe is the profile of the woman who works in the ICT sector in Spain?

Without having a precise analysis on this profile, I believe that it responds to young women, of between 25 and 40 years of age, with good academic instruction (higher education degrees or university degrees), with a creative and innovating capacity, a dose of dynamism and curiosity and who enjoys its job.

Are the new Information and Communication Technologies companies a prosperous platform for the empowerment of the Spanish business woman?

In this sense, the strategic targets of the Action Platform of Beijing recognized that accessing to the new technologies was important for the advancement of women in the world, who should not only have the possibility of receiving training and acceding to these technologies, but they must also be able to contribute to their contents and be able to benefit from all the possibilities that they offer.

The new technologies market has a great future as a way of incorporating women to the labour market, since it offers diverse possibilities and uses: they can look for jobs, training, create networks and points of contact to elaborate common strategies and, above all, it is a space where it is possible to generate and to accede to information in a alternative form, overcoming the lack of time (double labour days, incompatible labour and family schedules, etc.), which one of the most important difficulties that women face.

Although the proportion of women in the ICT market is still very little, we are trying to get more women interested in orienting their professional life towards this sector because it is essential to show them that working in this field can be stimulating and rewarding.It is necessary that they discard the existing negative stereotypes,to make them see that the training in careers related to the new technologies can open a very interesting market to them, with great possibilities for their present and future, both as directors of their own companies or by reaching directive positions in companies of the sector.

Do you believe that there are gender stereotypes in the ICT market?

When we speak of the new technologies, paradoxically, we think in “masculine”.

We, women, have not been a visible part of them, although outstanding investigators in this field have made their existence and later development possible, such as Grace Hooper, creator of the COBOL language in 1960 or long before, in the XIX century, Ada Byron, become the first programmer. Women have been attributed of having "technophobia" that is explained by the lack of visible references, by a socialization process in which the new technologies are not attribute to us like our own, reason for which it is not necessary to train us to use them and, in addition, by aspects of economic nature like the cost of technology that has limited its access only those people with greater spending power, traditionally men.

How does the Women Institute help businesswomen who want to create their own business in the ITC sector?

The Women Institute has always been very has interested in facilitating the access of women to the new technologies sector, as a labour market for new businesswomen in the present and in the future, and has been working for time over this matter.

Between the actions developed by our Organism - and in collaboration with the Superior Council of Chambers - the Women Institute has incorporated, in the year 2001, the new technologies to its program of Advise to Businesswomen with the creation of website www.empresarias.net, an innovative tool that supports the services that are provided live, which continuously has a greater participation of entrepreneurs and businesswomen. For example, in the year 2006, more than 5,130 people have used it.

Regarding the financial support, through the program of subventions “Emprender en femenino” (Undertaking in feminine), aid is also provided to self-employed women or to the ones who have created a society, to surpass the initial obstacles and to consolidate the companies they have created. This program has incorporated the technological sector like a high-priority when evaluating the business projects that are chosen to receive the subvention, which represented, in 2006, 20% of the beneficiated companies.

Apart from this, the Women Institute created in 2005 the web portal www.soyempresaria.com, a platform that works as a business centre between businesswomen and women entrepreneurs and as a point of contact and interchange between these women and the Business Institutions and Organizations who represent them or in which they participate.

The permanent stands counted, in the year 2006, with 4,942 participants and 21% of technological companies.

How do you see the future of businesswomen of the ICT sector in Spain?

Making forecasts is difficult, and even more in such a young sector as the one of the new technologies. In this field, the advancement of women has just begun and their progress is just a question of time. Reaching it will not be possible without everyone’s participation, without exclusions, sharing fairly the responsibilities of the decision making process in order to exile the gender inequalities in the control of the existing technological resources.