S Muthwa: Black Information Technology Forum (BITF) Annual Women in
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Awards

8 April 2009

Leadership of the public and private sectors
Members of all organisations in Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
community
Award recipients
Ladies and gentlemen

It is my pleasure to participate in this important event this morning to
honour the recipients of the Women in ICT Awards. I wish to thank Imbizo Events
for facilitating my participation. This event is being hosted with the PDF
Created with memories of International Women’s Day, celebrated on 8 March every
year, still fresh in our minds. As you will know, this day has been observed
since the early 1900’s and has its roots in women campaigns for change against
oppression and inequality.

It has grown to become a global day of celebration and a virtual crest for
sustained struggle for equality across developed and developing countries
alike. I believe that it is fitting that the awards being presented today
contribute to our consciousness of what the International Women’s Day continue
to stand for in depicting lived experiences of masses of women. In celebrating
our achievement today I hope we will be reminded that there are still many
barriers still to be overcome, in all walks of life, until women are fully
represented in the world of ICT.

Throughout history and across cultures, gendered norms and spatial
arrangements have served to perpetuate uneven relationships and social standing
between men and women. This is still prevalent even as we have come to accept
that in today’s global economy, women increasingly are taking on traditionally
male dominated roles and public spaces.

Amongst those working environments and public spaces that continue to be
profoundly dominated by men is the Information and Communication Technology
sector. The exclusion of women in ICT continues to leave a large gap in
economic participation that deprives women of equal opportunities in a range of
competitive roles in the private sector, in particular.

To increase the ICT footprint of women in all walks of life “requires a
consensus among decision makers that ICT’s are not gender neutral and that
gendered power relations are inherent in the way in which the production,
distribution and consumption of ICT’s take place.”

Due to the discriminatory policies of the past in our own country women of
all races were prevented from achieving their full economic potential. As a
result of Shafika Isaacs: empowering women in the information society: towards
a more global and local effort, this backlog to this day fewer women hold
senior positions in government and the private sector compared to their male
counterparts. This is more so when it comes to African women whose positions
are more squeezed out by a combination of household and workplace subjugations.
This trend is more pronounced in the science and technological fields,
including ICT. The study titled “Women in the Information and Communication
Technology Sector in South Africa” notes that this trend is quite evident in
the ICT industry, where only about 20% of the current ICT work force is
female.

It noted that only 0.9% of Information Technology (IT) industry managers are
African women with coloured and Indian women accounting for 0,6% and 1%
respectively. Recent surveys have shown some improvements in demographics of
the high level ICT sector workforce. It remains a concern though that the
demographics at managerial levels in the ICT sector still continue to display
gender and race discrepancies with a continued.

Women in the Information and Communication Technology Sector in South
Africa, Tina James (editor), Ronel Smith, Joan Roodt, Natasha Primo’ Nina
Evans, predominance of white men in particular in the high end of the
sector.

In South Africa the gender machinery has ensured, and continues to lobby,
for better positioning of women in all areas of public life. Indeed, a
quantitative analysis confirms that various quotas and charters have achieved
much for the empowerment of women in the public sector in particular.

In addition the ICT Charter places particular importance on the positions
and roles of women in the ICT industry. The same (of Ronel, et al) underscores
the significance that the Charter places on the visibility and empowerment of
women in ICTs.

It is notes that the Charter requires companies to:
* “achieve a target of 50% black people in senior management positions with 30%
black women being a percentage of the former
* achieve a target of 65% black people in other management positions with 30%
black women being a percentage of the former
*commit to a target of 60% black people in the governing body with black women
comprising 50% of the former, and
* commit 2% of payroll in addition to the current skills development levy for
investment in the skills of black people, black women, black youth, and black
people with disabilities.”

All this said, we have to realize that the Charter speaks more to women ICT
participants in the formal segment of the industry, and not women in the,
informal and survivalist sectors of the economy. Naturally, not geared to
target women outside the formal sector the Charter does not address the needs
of most South African women who continue to exist on the margins of the
economy, while supporting it to thrive, but with their contributions
unaccounted for, and not properly measured and understood.

Going forward the ICT sector inclusion has to aim at assisting harmonization
of women’s women multifaceted roles within the home and public life.
Widened
PDF created with access by women to the information and knowledge resources
which are important to development will by extension benefit their families and
communities. The multiple roles of women, consisting of productive (SMMEs, food
production and trading), reproductive (child care, subsistence agriculture,
health care and education) and community (community infrastructure, water and
sanitation and natural resource management) responsibilities place women at the
apex of national development. Widened ICT enablement of women, wherever they
are, does not only make business sense, but pervades all national efforts at
social cohesion.

As we are all aware, our nation has been awarded an opportunity to host a
FIFA World Cup in 2010. This has brought huge economic benefits to South Africa
through infrastructure development, renewal of transport systems, tourism and
hospitality industry, to name but a few. We have to explore how can our
SMMEs use this opportunity to generate profit and thrive beyond 2010.

Effective communication and networking are critical.

Given the global economic meltdown and the harsh economic conditions
expected in 2009, SMMEs more than ever, need to find a balance between cutting
costs where possible and increasing productivity, so as to remain competitive
and sustainable.

Communication capability is one area SMMEs cannot afford to cut back on.
Some key areas where SMMEs could add value through the use of effective
communication technologies include aspects such as ICT Enabling Recruitment,
internal communication, business to business communication, networking, and
stakeholder engagement.

Mindful of the poor connectivity of our province and others that share
geographical and socio-economic features like us, it is encouraging that the
footprint of the mobile technology is becoming increasingly dominant. This
should be leveraged further to ensure that emerging and small businesses in
these areas grow and are connected to the enabling first economy and to the
markets. I am sure some of the award winners this morning have explored some
ideas in that regard.

Programme director, I am sure all of us this morning are intrigued to hear
the stories and journeys to success of each of the award winners today. In your
success there are lessons to be shared so that we grow our collective wisdom in
order for it to be a little bit easier for the women who yet follow on our
path.

Today we will hear of the vision that awoke the dream within you to take on
the challenges, to push ahead towards your beacon of inspiration, bringing you
to this outstanding achievement. I believe that this reflection will
demonstrate that success is often the result of an unexpected combination of
forces. These insights will provide pointers for other women to follow to
achieve success in less beaten tracks of public life such as the world of ICT
where opportunities for participation by women are still skewed. I would hope
that the organisers are planning to publish these stories and make them
available to a wide audience, to encourage us and to create new visions of
possibility.

In this regard, the project of Women’s Net in advancing rights of women and
improving their relative positions using ICTs has to be singled out as one of
the shining examples that could be emulated by the collective gathered here
today. In their own words, Women’s Net “is committed to challenging traditional
approaches of developing media which appropriates women's voices, misrepresents
us, and disempowers us, our approach to digital stories is one of empowerment,
of women's control over their voices and stories, and respectful of process and
product. In the process of making digital stories the importance of women's
control and empowered use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs)
tools is emphasised.”

I am sure that most of you gathered here today already apply these
principles in realisation of business success and personal advancement, and
self-mastery.

Women’s Net: Digital stories for transformation of course, there is no need
for me to convince all of you here today of the developmental power of
information and communications technologies and how these can enhance our level
of innovation, and promote inclusion, and social cohesion. Skilfully deployed
ICT’s present themselves as a powerful lever for networking thus ever reducing
the gulf of inequality that continues to define the structure of our
economy.

However, I do wish us as a collective to reconfirm the notion that poverty
is not only limited to asset poverty but its deepest manifestation can be seen
in a lack of access to information, which deprives the poor of the opportunity
to make choices to improve their lives.

Working in partnership, we need to seek innovative ways to broaden access to
connectivity in the province in order to unleash the full potential of ICT for
building a better life for all. We need to work collaboratively to develop an
inclusive society and actively promote equal digital opportunities, so that
technology becomes a central tool for helping to graduate households out of
poverty into economic productivity.

Many of you will be aware that the centre-piece of government’s efforts in
this regard is the ICT strategy for the province, with the vision to “develop
the Eastern Cape as an effective and efficient self sustaining information
society”. Private sector role-players are key to the successful roll-out of
this strategy, and to compliment Government’s efforts to bring services closer
to the people through connectivity points at public facilities such as
libraries, post offices and Thusong Service Centres.

This improved access will provide women in remote villages, farming
communities, pensioners, and young job seekers, with information to assist them
to participate more effectively in the socio-economic and political life in
which they are located.

Clearly, today’s award winners are leading the way and breaking new ground
in proving how ICT can be a multiplier of opportunity. Each of their
achievements is a statement against inequality. It is a manifestation of their
commitment towards using innovation to push back the frontiers of poverty. Let
us recognize and celebrate their advancements. Let us add our voices to urge
more women to take their rightful place in the world of ICT, and to use that
space to campaign for a more inclusive society, so that people can access the
information they need to make sound choices in their lives.

I salute all the award winners this morning.

Thank you.

Issued by: Office of the Premier, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
8 April 2009
Source: Office of the Premier, Eastern Cape Provincial Government (http://www.ecprov.gov.za)