“When we joined the National Police Academy for IPS training, we were told that we are officers first and then women,” said Roopa Moudgil, IPS.
At the recently held #BlrTechSummit, SheThePeople.TV brought together government and digital experts to focus on women and policies in the workforce across sectors.
“Women are naturally inclined more towards humanity. For a majority of them, science and technology do not attract them naturally. And, that is the root where we need to imbibe digitization and ignite the interest towards learning STEM,” added Roopa.
READ: Restarting Your Career? Know it From the Women in the Industry
"Not many women in tech are projected on front stage, not many women tech geeks are shown in movies. This needs to be changed," – Roopa Moudgil
Also Read: Assisting women in restarting their careers: Five Organisations
How women are using digital media to create business
"At Facebook, we believe that unlike men, every time a woman wins, everybody wins. Because every time a woman is successful, more and more of that success goes back to the family, to the society. There’s research work that proves that this is not in the case of a male entrepreneur in terms of the amount of earning that goes back to the society vs into the pocket" claimed Ritesh Mehta, Head-Economic Initiatives, Facebook, who has been working with small enterprises throughout.
"In the last three years, we have seen Facebook pages for women-owned businesses grow six times. Women use social media more efficiently and equivalently. They are making the best use of it and using it as the true leveller that it actually is" – Ritesh Mehta
Insight into women entrepreneurship
“You name a business that could be done online and I can rattle off stories of women entrepreneurs who are taking the plunge," Ritesh said.
Kavita Mohammad of Egon Zehnder is the headhunter for women who are leading technology. According to her, most of the employees are taking advantage of the space regularly.
READ: #BlrTechSummit: She Drives Technology And How!
The Challenges
Roopa explained how different safety apps for women are being launched and how useful it’s becoming for daily lives. “The problem is that rural women don’t know or understand the technology of downloading the apps, so we need to tap into that zone while bringing out policies,” she explained.
Ritesh pointed out that “rural women don’t have access to smartphones at all. If they do get access, that is limited and heavily controlled. Compared to boys, the girl child would have limited access to the YouTube channels or social media. A wider spread needs to be done in backward areas and it should not be focused only on cities. So this is the field where a change is required. Internet Saathi, initiated by Google, is doing the job.”
READ: A case for women in technology: Girls outperform boys in ability test
The Change
“The bigger picture is when we train one portion of influencers and they go ahead in training the rest of the people. The only way we could inspire a bigger population is through role models and the ones people look up to,” Ritesh concluded.
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