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Women in ICT

As the Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) sector in Jordan is thriving tremendously, the need to provide Jordan’s human resources with the invaluable IT skills has become a national priority. However, factual findings have revealed that Jordanian women, who make up 48% of Jordan’s population, face the risk of being marginalized from the flourishing ICT sector due to unequal access to training and education.

Based on the United Nations Development Fund for Women research entitled “Jordanian Women in the ICT Space”, it has been found that women make up only 28% of Jordan’s total ICT labor force. Furthermore, the greater number of Jordan’s women occupy positions on the lower part of the ICT job scale, where only 7% of the female ICT labor force are decision makers and only 2% are project managers and team leaders. It has also been found that the majority of women are employed in software development and support jobs in the ICT sector, where 44% are in software development and web related jobs, 27% are employed in data entry and help desk, and only 11% are employed as hardware, computer security and network engineers, systems administrators and technical support.

In response to the immediate need to reverse the trends towards gender inequality in Jordan’s ICT sector, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), one of the leading UN funds mandated to empower women and eliminate gender gaps, launched in June 2001, in partnership with the Government of Jordan, Cisco Foundation and Cisco Systems, Inc., the “Achieving E-Quality in the ICT Sector” initiative. The initiative aims to mainstream and empower women in the Information and Communications Technology sector through building their capabilities and professional skills and ensuring a gender sensitive policy environment.

“Achieving e-Quality in the IT Sector” seeks to empower women in the Information & Communications Technology sector by building their capabilities and professional skills, linking them to the job market, creating a positive policy environment and raising awareness among stakeholders. Through this project’s intervention, women can foster the needed technical knowledge and skills through the establishment of the Cisco Networking Academy Program in national institutions for the provision of high quality professional training for women. Ultimately, the initiative aims to ensure women’s full and equal participation in all aspects of Jordan’s ICT sector by training women to design, build and maintain computer networks.