Greater female participation in ICTs

31/05/2017

LACNIC promotes greater participation of women in ICTs in Latin America and the Caribbean and seeks to strengthen the role of women as part of the regional Internet community.

The goal is to achieve greater female influence in strategic decision-making processes within the Internet community, said Agustina Zamit, Events and Sponsorships Specialist at LACNIC and head of this project at the regional RIR.

Women currently represent less than 20% of speakers and panelists at Information and Communications Technology events organized in the region, particularly at LACNIC meetings.

“However, we know that there are many outstanding women in the world of ICTs. We want to get closer to them, to get to know them as professionals, and to boost their participation at these events,” Zamit said.

A first step of this project has been re-launching and bringing greater visibility to the IT Women list for sharing ideas and projects, as well as organizing frequent online meetings.

In fact, three webinars have already been held this year with the participation of more than 30 women from different countries of the region. These meetings are organized around a collaborative agenda that includes the topics these women wish to promote or projects on which LACNIC is working, added Zamit. The group shares a common agenda and many research topics in Latin America.

As a result of this exchange, a panel on diversity and inclusion was organized during LACNIC 27.

The first stages of this project have been successful. The number of participants on the IT Women mailing list has already doubled. “We began 2017 with 115 subscribers; today the list has more than 200 participants from all sorts of organizations and different sectors,” concluded Zamit.