.PIRONGRONG RAMASOOTA

FACULTY OF COMMUNICATIONS ARTS CHULALONGKORN

UNIVERSITY

Women and Girls in ICTs

Women and ICTs in Thailand

In 2011, there were more female Internet users than male Internet users.

From 2005 to 2011, female Internet users increased from 12.2% to 23.9%, while the same growth for male Internet users was recorded at 11.8% to 23.5%

Percentage of Male and Female Internet Users

2005 - 2011

Source: National Statistics Office

Percentage

Male Female

Internet and computer skills: Men and Women

Women have higher Internet and computer skills

compared to men.

Research found that Internet and computer skills of

Thai women were higher than Thai men in every

region.

Percentage of Population aged 15-24 with ICTs skills

2005 - 2007

Percentage

2005 2006 2007

Source: National Statistics Office

Percentage of Population aged 15-24 with ICTsS skills

2005 - 2007: by regions

Regions

All

Bangkok

Central

North

Northeast

South

2005 2006 2007

All All All

Source: National Statistics Office

Women in ICTs Sector

Statistics from 2007 to 2011 showed that women working

in ICTs sector were far less in number than men.

In 2011, 90.5% of ICTs workforce were men (446,805),

while women were responsible for only 9.5% (46,758 )

Percentage of ICTs Workforce by gender in 2011

Source: National Statistics Office

Women in ICTs Sector

There were fewer women working in ICTs sector,

particularly in lower skill jobs, such as technicians

and machinists. In high skill jobs, the number of

women were about half the number of men.

Number of ICTs Workforce by gender: 2007-2011

Source: National Statistics Office

2005 2006 2007

High Skill

Low Skill

Number

Research on Women and ICTs

Girls in Cyberspace : Opportunities and Risks by National

Institute of Child and Family Development

There are differences in ICTs usage of girls living in

metropolitan and rural areas, in term of amount of time

spent. Metropolitan Rural

1.Internet 1.Mobile

2.Mobile 2.Internet

3.Computer Game 3.Computer Game

Research on Women and ICTs

Risks encountered by girls and boy:

Girls are more prone to risks such as accessing sexual

content, online chatting, deception and drugs.

While, boys are prone to a problem

of addiction to ICTs.

Research on Women and ICTs

Girls’ use of ICTs

Girls both from metropolitan and rural area constructively use ICTs, such as searching for data and knowledge, enhancing English skill, reporting news and making websites.

Women dropping out of ICTs career?

Current research on girls and ICTs tend to be limited to use and risks encountered. None addresses the question as to why women have dropped out from a career in ICTs.

One past research suggests that conventional wisdom and stereotypes on the masculine character of science and technology discourages women from working in ICTs while ICTs work itself requires flexible hours and demanding workload and responsibilities that women find difficult to cope.

Women in charge of ICTs (1)

Jirawan Boonperm,

permanent-secretary of

Ministry of ICTs Thailand

is also a woman.

Women in charge of ICTs (2)

Patama Chantaruck

• was Managing director of

Microsoft Thailand

• Stepped down in Mar 2011

to lead $9B business division

in Redmond, WA

Women in charge of ICTs (3)

Supajee Suthampan

• was general manager of Global

Technology Services at IBM Asean

• Appointed as Thaicom's CEO in Mar

2011

Women in charge of ICTs (4)

At DTAC, a Norwegian telecommunications concern in Thailand, there is only one woman (out of 8 management members) working in top level management team, while at its rival AIS, a Thai-turned Singaporean mobile service provider, there is one woman (out of 9) working in the Board of Directors.

Government project aiming at

improving status of women in ICTs

e-Women Project

The Ministry of ICTs, in conjunction with telecentre.org

foundation, aims to promote ICTs skills in women, namely,

ICTs literacy through community ICTs center

Telecentre.org recruits women who are leader in ICTs use

from ICTs community center. This group of women are

those who are successful in using ICTs to foster their quality

of life.

Government project aiming at

improving status of women in ICTs

The selected women are sent to participate in the Most

Outstanding Telecentre Woman Manager 2011

The Ministry of ICTs considered this project a successful

initiative to prepare women for technological change.

CGEO – government project to improve gender equality

Chief Gender Equality Officer (CGEO) has gained Cabinet’s

approval on 31 July 2001. According to this initiative, all Ministries

and Departments are to appoint one at the executive level the Chief

Gender Equality Officer (CGEO) and establish Gender Focal Point

(GFP). Civil Service Commission to set up criteria for CGEO and

GFP. The objectives are to promote gender equality in Thai Civil

Service System and create networks of gender equality in Thai Civil

Service System.

CGEO – government project to improve gender equality

Mission of CGEO

Set up policy and Supervision : Gender perspectives to be

integrated in all organizational structure and mission

Support : Learning/training in gender mainstreaming in their

agency as well as collection of sex-disaggregated data

Be trained in gender mainstreaming

Thank you for your attention