Women as Professionals in the Costa Rican Information Technology Sector: Exploring the Relationship Between Sustainable Development and Gender Gaps in the Information Society
By, Margarita Salas, Fundación Acceso/Bellanet LAC
ICTs are generating more than $2 billion dollars annually for Costa Rica, and the industry is one of the fastest growing in the country.Yet, women continue to constitute a minority in the IT professional sector and their participation seems to be
decreasing. Since Costa Rica considers IT to be an important opportunity for development, the continued gender imbalance within the sector creates unfavourable conditions for womens socio-economic future. Salas suggests some tools for improving the current gender imbalance in Costa Ricas IT industry and
calls for policy that will break away from stereotypical professional roles. She underlines the need for technical training institutes, as well as centres of higher education, to encourage women to enter and remain in science and technology careers.
This paper consists of seven sections. The first three are meant to give the reader the broader context in which this research takes place. Hence, the introduction provides general information regarding the Next Generations Policy Directions
Project, which is the starting point for this study. The thematic justification (Section 2) explains how the research views the relationship between gender and sustainable development, as well as the connection to the information society agenda. Section 3 outlines the methodology used to produce and organize the contents.
Sections 4 and 5 present results from documentation as well as fieldwork. They represent the new data that were either gathered from census and statistical institutions or generated through interviews with local key stakeholders. Section 6
highlights five case studies that illustrate some of the national experiences that are being developed in gender and information technologies. Section 7 offers research conclusions and recommendations.
This paper was published in:
A Developing Connection: Bridging the Policy Gap between the Information Society and Sustainable Development
ISBN 1-895536-77-4
Terri Willard, Maja Andjelkovic, Steve Vosloo, Wainaina Mungai, Margarita Salas, Anusha Lall, Atanu Garai, Diogo André de Assumpção, Amira Sobeih, IISD, 2005.
© 2005 International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)
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