Pakistan’s younger women riding a digital wave
KARACHI: When Kainat Naz joined a womenfriendly technology boot camp a year ago, she had no idea it would completely change her life and her views on how women can work in conservative Pakistan. Naz, 22, had never ventured far from her home in Orangi Town in Karachi, one of the five largest slums of the world, but was feeling dissatisfied with her current teaching job.
So she signed up for tech program called TechKaro, an initiative by Circle, a social enterprise that aims to improve women’s economic rights in Pakistan, and is now working fulltime for a software company.
Naz said the course was challenging in many ways but she soon found that the women on the training were just as good as the men at tech skills like coding, web development and digital marketing, and also at presenting themselves at interviews. “From developing our CVs, to giving us tips on dressing for work, to conducting ourselves during an interview and how to battle some sticky questions ... we were groomed for everything,” said Naz.
Women make up about 25 percent of Pakistan’s labor force, one of the lowest in the region, according to the World Bank. It has set a target to increase this to 45 percent, calling for more childcare and a crackdown on sexual harassment to encourage more women out to work and boost economic growth. In Pakistan, women represent only 14 percent of the IT workforce, according to a 2012 study by P@SHA, the Pakistan Software Houses Association for IT and IT-enabled services (ITeS).
Gap in the market Sadaffe Abid, chief executive of Circle, set up TechKaro with the help of a few private foundations in 2018 seeing this gender gap, and took on 50 trainees in the first year of which 62 percent were women and 75 in 2019 including 66 percent women. Abid, who previously worked for a microfinance institution, said she was delighted that women like Naz were proving that women could succeed in the tech world. “I am a firm believer that one of the most powerful uses of technology is to bring it to young women, especially from under-served communities, to unlock their talents, resourcefulness and creativity,” said Abid.
“People told me I won’t find women, or women will drop out in high numbers, or after completing the course, women won’t find employment as the industry will not be open to hiring this unique diverse group with no degree in computer science. — Reuters