Information Society Watch

December 13, 2007, Indiatimes

There is a perception that IT/IT-ES sectors have apparently provided a more level playing field in terms of employment opportunities without any gender bias. This claim seems to be borne out by the prediction that the percentage of women in such industries is set to rise dramatically in the coming years. However, there are still some glaring anomalies as pointed out by the article viz., the representation of women in upper management is significantly disproportionate to the overall percentages.

2005, Reena Patel , Mary Jane C. Parmentier, MIT Press Journal

As women in India enter the rapidly expanding Information Technology (IT) workforce, it could be predicted that their active participation in this sector will change their socio-economic status within the employing organization and the communities in which they reside. It is often expected that women’s participation in the professional realm will contribute to a breakdown of traditional gender roles. And indeed, the data illustrate that women are working in the IT sector in India in increasing numbers.

Anita Dighe & Usha Vyasulu Reddi, CEMCA    

This paper highlights why women's illiteracy needs to be addressed, and outlines documented experiences in using ICTs to address illiteracy. After reviewing some of the salient experiences of running literacy programmes for women in developing countries, the authors discuss the support needed from a broad array of sources and areas for meaningful use of ICT interventions in women's literacy.

2006, Anita Gurumurthy, Parminder Jeet Singh, Anu Mundkur and Mridula Swamy, UNDP: Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme

This selection of papers comes from a seminar organized by an Indian NGO, IT for Change, in April 2005. The collection offers valuable literature on areas which have largely gone unnoticed in ICT and development discourse.

2003, R.C. Sharma, The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries

This short piece by the regional director of Indira Gandhi Open University (IGNOU) discusses major barriers to women's entry into the e-commerce sector. The analysis of gender issues in e-commerce settings reveals that women face significant barriers in education and training.

December 2003, Anita Gurumurthy, IT for Change

The author of this piece contends that the use of ICTs in realising human development goals is constrained by the larger socio-economic context, which itself is rooted in neo-liberal policies. At WSIS, negotiations between governments, as over anything that implicates global justice, will result in the adoption of the lowest common denominator.

April 2002, Simone Cecchini and Monica Raina, Information Technology in Developing Countries

This paper provides an example of the adoption of ICT by a rural community by detailing the Warana “Wired Village” project, in the state of Maharashtra, India. There, a local cooperative is using ICT to streamline the operations connected with sugar cane growing and harvesting. This is benefiting small farmers, both in terms of transparency and time saved on administrative transactions, as well as the cooperative, in terms of monetary gains.

2005, R.Heeks, S.Arun and S.Morgan, Women's ICT-Based Enterprise for Development Project

The paper reports on, and draws lessons from, experiences in researching a group of ICT-based enterprises (mainly doing data entry, IT training, and hardware assembly work) run by cooperatives of poor women in Kerala state, India.

2005, India-Together

Newsletters in rural Uttar Pradesh, started by women as a development effort to help communicate among themselves and share opinions, have evolved into forms of social mobilisation. These newsletters, now taking the form of newspapers, address social issues which affect entire communities and are in turn mobilising these communities in the process.