Here's how technology will empower women, set the bar higher

India women have come a long way in terms of establishing themselves as leaders, decision makers, bread earners, company representatives and entrepreneurs. These leaders are encouraging women to have a transformed lifestyle. We’re seeing women rising the ranks in business, technology and government from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific. There’s been no better time to be a woman in India than right now. By and large, women are safer, more prosperous and have more opportunities than they ever had before.

Recently when the world was showering praises on ISRO’s feat of launching 104 satellites, the untold story of the “Rocket Women” of India was also unfolding simultaneously. These brilliant women scientists have taken the Indian space programme to new heights. And they are not the only ones who have broken the glass ceiling to reach for the skies, literally, but every sector is witnessing an increasing presence of women in the boardroom. A case in point will be the banks or the technology companies where women now dominate the top roles.

Women have never had it so good
Long gone are the excusable days that women are not part of the corporate composition. According to the World Economic Forum, more than a quarter of a billion women have entered the labor force in the past 10 years, up from 1.5 billion to 1.75 billion worldwide.

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 of the United Nations 2030 global agenda specifically sets out to achieve gender equality and female empowerment. And according to ADB, a tenant to the achievement of SDG 5 is the use of Information and Communications Technology. SDG 10 – Reducing Inequalities connects in equal measure to the active inclusion of women and girls in educational, social and economic spheres. It’s an inclusion that ICT effectively drives.

Women have come a long way, still a long walk
Despite accomplishments of women leaders from Asia, there are many hurdles to be crossed. For example, India has among the worst levels of gender wage disparity — men earning more than women in similar jobs — with the gap exceeding 30 per cent, according to the Global Wage Report 2016-17 released by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in December 2016.

Further at a regional level, Asia loses between US$16 billion to US$30 billion annually as a result of gender gaps in education and then employment. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) and ADB, the region reportedly loses between US$42 billion to US$47 billion annually due to women’s limited access to employment opportunities.

Clearly, if more women were active participants in the economy, we all benefit. Eliminating gender disparity in the region would increase per capita income for all by 70% in roughly 60 years and that’s something everyone should be able to get behind.

Women need to feel empowered and supported by their companies in order to put themselves forward for senior positions. Without this commitment and backing from the business community, the current imbalanced situation which the corporate sector is facing won’t change. According to the TimesJobs Job Outlook Survey 2016–17, an increased number of corporates in India will have a larger focus on gender diversity in 2017. Nearly 70 percent of organizations said they would be hiring more women in 2017 and 20 percent said that they would hire women professionals for CXO roles in the years to come.

Technology to empower Indian women
A 2016 report done by KPMG found that communications technology, including mobile phones, promotes entrepreneurial activity of women, improving business practices overcoming gender barriers. This is corroborated by two thirds of working women who reported that having a mobile means they have, or would have, greater access to business and employment opportunities (GSMA).

Over 110 million Indian women are active users of internet and it is growing at a rate of 46% every year, according to a report by Internet and Mobile Association of India and IMRB International. The internet’s ability to enable access and reduce cost barriers for such young female pioneers is essential in a world where remuneration inequalities still exist. With the right knowledge, a world of opportunity is at their fingertips—a world of female-empowered initiatives and gender neutral marketplaces—where outputs are judged solely on quality and void of predisposed discrimination.

The steepest, but surest climb is in India
The issue of women empowerment has never been more relevant in India. As one of the world’s fastest growing economies, in India, the creation and growth of digital economies and women empowerment should go hand-in-hand.

Telecom companies should provide the power of digital communication, enabling its female customers to improve their lives, build societies and secure a better future for all. Empowering women in societies and creating a positive local impact should be at the core of all actions.

Digital innovation has the ability to bring more women and disenfranchised into the fold. It gives an opportunity to promote inclusive growth and rewrite society’s gender code now. The rise of female inclusion through digital innovation around the world will provide more gender neutral opportunities and mute, if not completely extinguish the age-old – and frankly no longer acceptable – narratives of “before”.

(About the Author: This article has been contributed by Sharad Mehrotra, chief executive officer, Telenor (India) Communications)

(Image Credits: Flickr)