“It is important that women are networked. This catharsis of sharing and learning can be a good enabling agent,” said Jayanti Ravi, commissioner, higher education, Government of Gujarat, speaking at the eighth anniversary celebrations of Empowering Women in IT (eWIT) on Monday.
The theme for the afternoon was to encourage more women in the industry to ‘ascend and take charge’. eWIT, run by women IT professionals, was founded in 2006 as a platform to represent, discuss and voice challenges faced by women in the IT industry and to facilitate growth of women in the industry.
They have 20 large companies as members, apart from individual members and smaller companies, according to them.
“Though there are many women in IT companies, not many are found in leadership positions. Good family support and infrastructural support can make a huge difference,” said Rama Sivaraman, president, eWIT, and chief delivery assurance officer, Polaris.
Sujith Kumar, location HR lead, Infosys, Chennai, said that working couples setting goals collectively could solve a lot of problems. He urged women to explore positions that are off the beaten track. “Close to 24 per cent IT companies do not have technology architects who are women,” he said.
C.N. Ram, co-founder, Rural Shores, noted that “male bastions are fast crumbling”, and raised a question on the response to the change.
He said that they started BPOs in villages targeting educated rural youth and around 45 per cent of their staff was women. “Empowerment of women is happening at an alarming rate,” he said.
Jayashree Mitra, head, global technology management office, Standard Chartered Bank, Scope International urged women to take charge.
