Brussels, 04/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - According to the first survey by the European Commission on the role of women in the information and communication technologies (ICT) sector, published on 3 October, there are too few women in this sector - a sector which is promising for the future. The Commission believes that women and young girls should receive more encouragement to become involved in new technology, and it calls for suitable measures to be adopted in order to reverse the current situation. “We now know, beyond doubt, that more women in a business mean a healthier business. It is high time the IT sector realised this and allowed women a chance to help the sector and Europe's economy benefit from their enormous potential”, said European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes.
The study reveals that (1) of a total of 1,000 women with a Bachelors or other first degree, only 29 hold a degree in ICT (in comparison with 95 men), and only 4 in 1,000 women will eventually work in the ICT sector; (2) women leave the sector mid-career to a greater extent than men and they are under-represented in key posts. In order to reverse this trend, the Commission recommends building a new image of the sector among women, and adopting suitable measures to strengthen the presence of women in the sector - especially by promoting harmonised European educational curricula, and by increasing the number of women entrepreneurs in ICT (for example, by improving access to seed and venture capital programmes for women). According to the Commission, European GDP could increase by around €9 billion per year if women held digital jobs as frequently as men. The Commission underlines that women employed in the ICT sector would also benefit personally - with a higher salary (nearly 9% higher than that for women in other parts of the economy), greater flexibility in arranging their working time, and a lower risk of future unemployment. (IL/transl.fl)