Women move ahead in IT profession despite hurdles

FE Team | Published: September 22, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Yasmin Rimi
Information Technology (IT) is an attractive ofession for the country's young people. Many aim to become networking, graphics, software engineers and web designers.
At the beginning, IT in Bangladesh was male-dominated like any other fields. But those days are gone. Today women are invading the IT turf with remarkable success.
Farida Yasmin, graduated from Jahangirnagar University, is employed at the IT department of Sonali Bank headquarters as an assistant programmer. She develops software based on in-house system.
She says, "I have always wanted to take up a challenging profession. When computer and IT sectors began to be popular I got admitted to computer science to explore something new. I was under an impression that as a new subject many facilities will be available if I work on it. To me this is now an enjoyable profession."
Asked if she faces any problem in the challenging profession she says, "No, my boss and colleagues help me a lot. But as a woman there are some problems."
"For instance," she says, "If I have a problem in programming at a wrong time, I cannot go to my friend's residence like boys. In this case I have to wait until the office hour next day although I need this in the morning. In programming, consulting with friends is very essential, which is not possible all the time for security reasons."
Agreeing with her, network engineer Eva Rahman of Link3 Technologies Ltd, says, "Time is the main problem for a woman. Whatever important job she does, she has to manage everything like cooking and looking after children and their education. In a challenging profession one has to give time, but a woman has to take care of her family first."
If one looks at Dhaka University's Computer Science department, it will confirm that girls are choosing this subject despite various problems. The final year of this department has only two female students while in the first year out of 67 students 16 of them are girls. Out of 420 students in the department 120 are females.
Shahjalal University of Science and Technology presents a similar picture. Lecturer Chandan Kumar Karmaker of Computer Science and Engineering department says, "In our first batch, there were only two girls, but at present there are 33 students out of 120 in the first year. Girls proved to be talented, so most of them joined various universities as teachers."
According to a survey conducted by Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) in 2004, there were 5,500 people who worked on software while about 25000 were involved in the IT sector. Although the exact figure was not available, it was learnt that a significant number of them were women and they did well.
Tarana Ahmed is the managing director of Technochic Ltd that works on animation. Her specialisation is to make ultramodern graphics. She informs that her works on animation are sent to other countries.
She says, "It is often seen that men do not cooperate with their female counterparts although they work well because they (males) think women cannot come up with new ideas."
Bangladesh Computer Council executive director Dr AM Chowdhury agrees with Tarana. He says, "There is huge demand worldwide for animation. Our women can capture the market because they have the creativity and patience, which are very essential."
Ruksana Tarannum Tajin, a teacher of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, says, "As our time has been experiencing new dimensions in the fields of IT and computer, I wanted to take up teaching because research facilities will be available here. I want to create such things in the profession that will benefit many."
Dr Jafar Iqbal, an IT specialist and chairman of the department of Computer Science and Engineering of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, says, "People tend to believe that women are less talented in science and mathematics, which is not true. During Russian revolution, there were many female engineers and pilots."
He also says, "In our society, girls go ahead amid many problems and struggle. Despite having talent, many girls cannot advance their studies or build their careers. Boys are getting the opportunity to study, so they are doing well. Girls will also fare well if they are given the facilities."
Regarding career building of women, he says, "Of course, female participation in the IT profession is necessary. Not only in IT, if boys and girls come forward equally in every profession, it will contribute significantly to economic development of the country."
Dr AM Chowdhury says, "Officially girls do very well, but they have many social obligations. As a result, it is difficult for them to do well in IT. So, every male should cooperate with women to make things easier for them. The developed world is the best example of this."
Assistant manager of IT department of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Farzana Sattar works on network design, Internet and data communication system. She solves hardware and software-related problems.
She says, "Networking is an important medium for the empowerment of women. Women will be able to achieve their economic freedom when their access to the huge IT market will be unfettered. It will also help women's participation in decision-making process both at the family and social levels."
— NewsNetwork