3 ways India’s bringing more women into tech

Photo credit: Lawan Baldwin.

Statistics can be depressing. Take these, for example: only 30 percent of India’s tech force is made up of women, with a meager 36 percent of this pool promoted to supervisory positions.

Statistics can also be uplifting. There are predictions that the country’s current male to female ratio in tech companies – 76 to 24 – will become 65 to 33 in the next year. In fact, India is still better off than other, more “progressive” countries like the United States, where only 21 percent of the tech workforce is made up of female employees.

If there’s one thing that the tech industry has taught us, it’s to focus on the numbers and constantly look for new solutions. Here are some ways that the tech community is helping make a change in India.

See: Are you sexist and you don’t know it? Why you should ask yourself that if you’re in tech

Paypal’s “Recharge”

Photo credit: corinnepw.

While global payments giant PayPal hasn’t made much of a dent in India thanks to local regulations, it’s still got a large presence in the country, with a technology center set up in Chennai and another office in Bangalore.

This February, it launched a program to reintroduce women who have taken a minimum of two years off their careers back into the workforce. The program focuses on women who have a tech background, with at least five years of work experience in product development and analytics.

Once the program is completed, ten participants will be considered for an internship or full-time employment at PayPal’s offices in either Chennai or Bangalore. Possible roles include software development engineer, scrum master, and risk analyst team leader. The program involves networking opportunities, a shadow-a-leader initiative, and development and training.

“42 percent of PayPal’s employees globally are female,” explains Jayanthi Vaidhyanathan, director of PayPal’s human resources in India. Fifteen years ago, Jayanthi herself faced difficulty when re-entering the workforce after leaving to raise her children. “It was really difficult at the time, but I was lucky to have a supportive family,” she says. “We’re very programmatic in our approach to getting women back in here.”

Headstart’s “Women Entrepreneurs”

Photo credit: WOCTech Chat.

The Headstart Network Foundation is a group of entrepreneur volunteers that claims to be the largest of its kind in India. It’s made up of over 30,000 entrepreneurs, with most of them in the early stages of their businesses. It hosts events every weekend and, in the past few months, has launched one specifically for women.

Sheroes

Long way ahead