How IT & Telework has helped India's Women become more Free and Equal

“High-Tech Lift for India's Women”
Wall Street Journal (11/01/00) P. B1; Yee, Chen May

India's growing high-tech industry is creating new opportunities for women, who are expected to account for nearly half of the country's IT workforce within 10 years. Women will play a major role in helping the Indian software industry grow from a $5 billion-a-year industry this year to an $87 billion industry by 2008, according to the National Association of Software and Service Companies.

Although women now account for 14 percent of India's high-tech workforce, this figure is expected to jump to 45 percent by 2010, the association says. Half of the students at the tech trade schools offered by Indian software company NIIT are women, and some of the engineering colleges in India also say women represent 50 percent of their student population.

High-tech careers are providing some Indian women with alternatives to arranged marriages and motherhood. In addition, the high salaries in the IT field enable some women to become the primary wage earners in their families, giving them more control over decisions such as household finances.

The tech industry is also spearheading a shift in India's work culture toward increased gender equality, as other industries follow the tech companies' lead in offering paternity leave and telecommuting.

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