The global IT industry growth never seems to decrease. According to the predictions of the firm IDC (a worldwide analyst of market and industry trends), during 2007 the IT industry would grow moderately but would bring a series of disruptions to traditional enterprise models, including “a high proportion of small and medium sized businesses in the high growth, emerging markets”. (PDF file)

In the developing world, ICTs are presented as an opportunity to improve the livelihood of local communities benefiting from widespread access to hardware, connectivity and capacity building. Women however, have not only to deal with the entry barriers that ICTs present but have to do so within the conditions of their own cultural and economic realities. Since the late nineties it has been repeated many times that “barriers to ICT use are exacerbated for women as a result of their lower economic and social status, their lack of training and literacy, their concentration in lower-level and entry- level employment, their lack of autonomy, and their lack of time”. It is more and more evident that access to technology by itself will not provide the conditions on which women will generate economic independence and empowerment for themselves, their families and communities.

Even in developed countries and the most powerful economies, women are yet to take an equal part on the IT industry and its benefits. Many women on the United States and Europe face the conditions of a highly competitive workplace where employers are less willing to hire women, and differences in pay and career development still prevail.

(Flickr photo by AtomicMak)

Part of the efforts to bring ICTs to the developing world has been dedicated to strengthen local enterprises with the strategic use of technology to improve their business practices and achieve sustainability. Micro, small and medium enterprises have started incorporating computers, software and the Internet on traditional production models, such as manufacturing, agriculture and services. However, given the conditions for women in developing countries, the adoption of ICTs follows the same patterns of exclusion and inequality already in place.

According to Dr. Richard Heeks, who directs a research on Women and ICT based enterprises,“there is not enough evidence that those uses in traditional industries are really making a difference on improving the lives of local communities”, and that “the actual production of IT and knowledge has been underemphasized.” The creation of ICT products and services, using the local women's workforce and leadership, is one of the proposals that are being embraced by development organizations around the world.

On this proposal, women are producers of knowledge and innovation, and not only consumers of technology, creating micro, small and medium enterprises that retrieve value to the local community in the form of employment, revenue and increased economic activity. According to this model, going beyond the consumption and basic clerical literacy on ICTs can represent a real opportunity for women's empowerment and economic independence.

Flickr photo by transid

As many entrepreneurs, ICT commercial initiatives face many challenges in their quest for sustainability. For example, even if they have access to technology and knowledge the often lack managerial and business skills. Margarita Salas says that in Central America they “identified that many women's small enterprises lack management capacities, have weaknesses on administrative areas, financial areas, costing, marketing etc. Because of gender socialization sometimes they don't see their work as a business but as supplementary, subsistence income”

Empowerment and the building of wide support networks are necessary to supply these needs. In these enterprises, women's leadership often meets adverse conditions such as less opportunities for education, property rights, economic dependence on others and heavy family and domestic workload.

Despite the adverse conditions in many countries, women's ICT enterprises are innovating and proposing new business models that translate into direct benefits for their communities. Dr. Heeks presents the example of several groups in India in what he calls Social Outsourcing: small and medium enterprises are proposing larger companies or government agencies to outsource their IT work to them. Large organizations take advantage of this model with high quality IT work at low prices, and at the same time, they benefit local communities. Women's enterprises rely on their own resources to produce these innovations and overcome their many challenges.

Key questions:

* Are micro, small and medium enterprises economic models that actually translate into benefits to local communities? What are the conditions for entrepreneurial initiatives to spread their benefits?

* Self employment does not eliminate the fact that most women work double shifts and take most of the load of domestic work and family responsibilities. How do we address this and other challenges of women entrepreneurs in developing countries?

* What capacities are needed to strengthen women lead medium, small and even microenterprises, and what strategies have proved successful to deliver these capacities?

* Are there experiences in public policy, government support and international cooperation for the support of this specific sector?