IT's a woman's world

Women seem to be giving men a run for their money in every profession today. This holds true even in the technology sector, which was till recently dominated by the male fraternity.

In fact, technology seems to be creating new-age careers for women in sectors ranging from the number-crunching banking to the research-oriented medicine.

Says Jayanthi Sivaswami, associate professor, International Institute of Information Technology (Hyderabad), "Around 31 per cent of the workforce in India today constitutes of women, of which 19 per cent are in the IT sector." Sivaswami was speaking at a panel discussion on 'Technology enables new-age careers for women,' organised in the city on Thursday.

"The IT revolution is gender-neutral unlike other revolutions like the Industrial Age that pushed women down the food chain. That's why, today, women have jobs not only in the ubiquitous ITeS sector but also in banking, health, training and education," she says.

Elaborating with an example, Sivaswami says, "For instance, we at the IIIT, have done research with the L V Prasad Eye Institute and found out that Hyderabad has become the diabetes capital of the country. This way, therefore, women can use technology in the field of medicine for profiling various diseases like cancer and AIDS."

However, she feels that obedience and sensitivity should not become a woman's weak points.

"Women are understood to bring sensitivity, sincerity, obedience, good interpersonal skills and multi-tasking abilities to a job. They should, however, not let these be used as weaknesses."

Akila Jaikumar, global head, competency excellence group, Virtusa, believes, "A career choice does not boil down to monetary benefits only. A good career should also enable women to work with dignity and security."

Talking about how technology can be used for the maximum benefit, Jaikumar says, "Technology creates new-age careers for women as it enables them to do work that does not necessarily depend on physical strength. Even in the agricultural sector women can use technology in the form of drip irrigation or Internet which not only eases production process but also facilitates easy marketing."

Listing out the pluses of being techno-savvy, she says, "Today, a woman can even become an entrepreneur by working from home because of technology. This apart, technology also enables women to venture into different fields like photography with the help of digital cameras, for which they need not undergo any professional training."

"Technology is here to stay. It is prudent for women to become technology-friendly and be open to learning new skills on the job," she says.

According to Rama Devi, president, Association of Lady Entrepreneurs of Andhra Pradesh (Aleap), although technology is presumed to replace manual labour and therefore lead to a shortage of jobs, "it does create new avenues for people to explore."