Bridging the Gender Gap in the ICT Industry

Women’s History Month is an annual declared month that highlights the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society. Therefore, it is important to commemorate and celebrate those who have set the bar for people within the industry, more specifically, the women within the ICT industry.

 

Upon writing this blog, I obviously had to do my research. Unfortunately, gathering information about women in the ICT industry was not a walk in the park. The ICT industry is an industry that is currently dominated by men. Based on the findings made by Women in Tech ZA, only 23% of tech jobs are held by women in South Africa – out of 236 000 ICT (tech) roles, women occupy 56 000 of them. This is an alarming find and it should be addressed.

 

There have been initiatives and organisations that aid in bridging the gender gap in the ICT industry but is this enough? With the existing socio-economic barriers (which is too long of a discourse to get into right now) that exist in the modern society, women are faced with the lack of support which ultimately results in them being intimidated to enter the industry. We have entered the digital era, and such provides many opportunities for all of those aspiring to be in the field.  Tashline Jooste, Chief Executive Officer of the Innovator Trust, believes that gender equality must be addressed for the economy to experience the true potential that entrepreneurs have to offer.