Breaking the glass ceiling for women in STEM
STEM roles are among the fastest-growing and most in-demand professions, offering resilience to economic pressures.
Daily TribuneSTEM roles are among the fastest-growing and most in-demand professions, offering resilience to economic pressures.
Shiju Varghese, country head of Tata Consultancy Services, said this year’s TCS Sustainathon aims to break barriers and ignite change to empower more women in the field of science and technology, engineering and mathematics or STEM. | photograph courtesy of TCS
Science and technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, are traditionally male-dominated, with females facing significant barriers in breaking through the glass ceiling. However, we now see more women achieving high-level positions in those industries and making substantial contributions.
IT services, consulting, and business solutions Tata Consultancy Services, which leverages technology for business transformation and helps catalyze change, launched this year's TCS' Sustainathon to break barriers and ignite change to empower more women in STEM.
"Across the industry, there has been an increase from 79 to 80 percent in the information technology skills requirement, and the largest skills demand we have seen across verticals. We expect this demand to grow anywhere from 12 to 15 percent in two to three years," said TCS country head Shiju Varghese during the launch of Sustainathon on Monday in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.
TCS will bring Sustainathon 2023 to schools and universities throughout the Philippines to create a better future for the youth with its partners to make more women engage in STEM.
According to Varghese, the involvement of students in the program is the first step in addressing the gender gap in STEM.
Varghese said TCS is making strides in introducing STEM to students, especially women, as records from the Department of Education said that only 23 percent of enrollees are into STEM courses, which is relatively low compared to the enormous global requirements for the IT industry workforce, a challenge that TCS wanted to tackle.
Further, new research by LinkedIn, including data from the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report 2023, found that the Philippines has the widest gender gap in the Asia Pacific region at 22 percent, which refers to the extent to which Filipino women fall behind men in STEM employment.
This is higher than Australia (21 percent), Singapore (15 percent), and India (5 percent).
"Indeed, there's a need here in the Philippines to go out and spread awareness among young girls and students to engage them in STEM as a career option," Varghese maintained.
He said STEM roles are among the fastest-growing and most in-demand professions, offering resilience to economic pressures.
However, the underrepresentation of women in these fields hinders their ability to benefit from industry advancements.
The recent data emphasizes the need for systemic change to create fair and equal workplaces, ensuring women's careers are future-proof and resilient to labor market uncertainties.
For his part, Patrick Veril, the lead for Corporate Social Responsibility of ASEAN and Philippines, said the primary mission of the company is to empower the people in the community by building opportunities in the digital economy.
"We build equitable and inclusive pathways, specifically for our three stakeholders: the youth, the women, and the marginalized groups. Regarding strategic programs, TCS has programs on education, skilling, employment, and entrepreneurship. We are using our intellectual human technology and financial capital in implementing all our programs, aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In doing that, we have impacted more than three million lives globally with the programs we are implementing," Veril said.
In the Philippines, the TCS last year touched the lives of close to 46,000 Filipinos, including more than 25,000 voluntary hours for its flagship, namely 'Bridge-IT,' 'Go IT' and youth employment programs 'Ignite My Future,' among other endeavors.
Sustainathon
This year, TCS plans to make Sustainathon bigger, as they are conducting a series of roadshows in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
Sustainathon 2023 aims to develop new innovative solutions to address challenges and increase the representation of women and young girls in STEM.
Last year, Veril said TCS Sustainathon reached 1800 students and gathered 40 plus submissions from various universities in the Philippines.
TCS Sustainathon 2023 challenge partners are Converge ICT, SAP, Alaska and Universal Robina Corporation while Supporting Partner is ADB SEADS.
Strategic partners for this year's Sustainathon include the Department of Information and Communications Technology, the Commission on Higher Education, the Embassy of India, Linkedin and the Asian Development Bank.
The DAILY TRIBUNE is a proud media partner of this year's TCS Sustainathon.
