ICT companies are favouring employing women over men in a bid to empower women in the field, with female employers making up only 35 per cent of those within the sector.
This is according to Monica Wangari, a project manager at Ericsson, who said many companies – among them Ericsson and Google – are seeking female employees and giving them priority whenever they advertise for vacant positions.
Wangari, speaking at the Girls in ICT Day held at the company’s offices in Kenya, regretted the fact that whenever applications are sent in 95 per cent of them are from men.
“We prefer to employ women as opposed to men and we are encouraging them to apply whenever there is a vacancy,” said Wangari.
Wangari echoed the sentiments of International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Secretary General Dr Hamadoun Toure in his address to the European Parliament in April, when he said there was an urgent need to redress the growing gender imbalance within the technology sector.
“Despite some progress, only 21 of the Fortune 500 companies are run by women. There are only 16 women ICT Ministers out of the ITU’s 193 Member State governments, and only 10 of the world’s 160 independent ICT regulatory authorities are headed by a woman,” he said.
Toure went on to encourage women to take an interest in ICT careers.
