The action aims to train and promote female leadership in the area of information technology
On International Women's Day, the Digital Entrepreneurs Program was launched, a joint initiative of the Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovations and Communications and the Financier of Studies and Projects (FINEP), in partnership with the City of São Paulo. The execution is by Softex and Ade Sampa.
The Program aims to promote female leadership through training and development of technology-based companies. The goal is to train 300 women and generate 30 startups that will be accompanied in a pre-acceleration process to be carried out in the capital.
"Technology is the future of the economy in the city of São Paulo, but we don't want any growth, we want growth that is socially fair, giving more opportunity to those who need it most. That's exactly what we're doing here today on International Day for Women, it is a specific program to empower them by fostering startups that are female. So this partnership between the Ministry and City Hall is very important so that we can reach this common denominator that is to develop this economy, but above all with more women participating," said Mayor Bruno Covas.
At the signing ceremony of the agreement, Mayor Bruno Covas was accompanied by the Minister of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communications, astronaut Marcos Pontes, and the Municipal Secretary for Economic Development and Work, Aline Cardoso. Also present were the president of Ade Sampa, Frederico Celentano; the president of the Financier of Studies and Projects (Finep), Waldemar Barroso; and the president and vice president of Softex, Ruben Delgado and Diônes Lima, respectively.
"We signed a memorandum that will be regulated and I hope that this partnership can be expanded to other Brazilian cities. The initial investment of R$ 500 thousand will meet the proposal for training and preparing these new entrepreneurs. Then, through FINEP, there will be more R$ 500,000 as a prize for the five winning startups", added Marcos Pontes, Minister of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communications.
“About 20% of the workforce in the formal information technology market are women, and we want to expand the opportunities for this audience and for other technological areas", explains Paulo Alvim, MCTIC's Secretary of Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
“Despite the widespread recognition of the relevance of diversity, the presence of women in leadership positions, especially in the startup environment, is still insignificant. In addition to the lower presence of women in leadership positions, women entrepreneurs attract less venture capital to finance the growth of their businesses. To minimize these distortions, the Digital Entrepreneurs Program will offer customized guidance for female entrepreneurs. In this way, we hope to increase its chances of success”, highlights General Waldemar Barroso, president of Finep.
The city of São Paulo was chosen because it was named by the Women Entrepreneur Cities Index (WE-Cities) as one of the 25 best places in the world for female entrepreneurs.
"Mayor Bruno Covas has developed actions that provide an environment more conducive to female leadership. In São Paulo, microentrepreneurs already account for 45% of the total and, in addition to programs to support women, we have several actions during the month of March, such as Insperifa, Fábrica de Negócios Mais Mulheres, among others", highlights Aline Cardoso, secretary of Economic Development and Labor at the São Paulo City Hall. Paulo for female digital entrepreneurship."
The results of the study "Women in IT - Women's performance in the Brazilian formal job market in Information Technology", carried out by the Softex Intelligence area with the support of the MCTIC Entrepreneurship Secretariat, contributed to the development of a program focused exclusively on training and encouraging the increase of female participation in the job market in the IT sector.
“The characterization of the workforce and the identification of trends evolution are important tools to support public policies capable of reducing salary gaps and increasing the participation of women in the IT job market”, highlights Ruben Delgado, president of Softex. “This program is an instrument that seeks to enhance the strength of women to promote important transformations in our society and in the economy, through empowerment, mobilization, education and investment”.
Women in IT
Using the data available in the Annual Report of Social Information (RAIS), the survey by Softex's Intelligence area, carried out with the support of the MCTIC Entrepreneurship Department, verified in the period from 2007 to 2017 the evolution of participation by gender, the difference of remuneration between men and women, occupation of positions, valuation by region and education.
The results show that women have been losing participation in this sector. In 2007, women occupied 24% of the jobs in Core IT* (typically IT economic sectors) and men 76%. Although the number of women practically doubled from 2007 to 2017 (21,253 to 40,492), the number of men increased by 144% (67,106 to 163,685). In this ten-year period, the participation of women in the labor market in Core TI decreased from 24% to around 20%.
Regarding remuneration by gender, the data show that, in general, both in 2007 and in 2017 the average among men is higher than the average among women in the Core IT group. If in 2007 men earned 5,34% more, in 2017 this difference more than doubled, reaching 11,05% and occurs in all occupations.
In Core TI, it is observed that the North is the region of the country where women have proportionally more years of training, with 72% of them having higher education, master's or doctorate degrees. Among men, this percentage is 61%.
Thus, although in general men earn more than women and positions with higher salaries are proportionally more occupied by men, the research suggests that training and higher education can be key elements in overcoming gender differences.
All these data show that women have been losing participation in the IT sector in recent years and, on average, earn less than men, but the cases in which the average female remuneration exceeds that of men point to ways to develop public policies. Hence the need to promote and encourage women's participation in the formal labor market and policies that encourage their training. These can be potential vectors for overcoming these salary differences carried out in association with other policies to value women in the labor market.
* Core TI – Development of custom computer programs; development and licensing of customizable and non-customizable computer programs; IT consulting; technical support, maintenance and other IT services; data processing, application service providers.
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