Scotland's Economy

Scottish Women in Technology

March 11, 2014 by Angela Constance MSP No Comments | Category Economy

Last week was International’s Women’s Day and a number of Scottish Government ministers, myself included, took part in a week of activity aimed at highlighting the importance of women to Scotland, especially in the labour market.

Rather neatly, that week has segued into Make Young People Your Business Week, a series of events to raise awareness of the benefits of taking on young people, that is particularly geared towards the ICT and digital technologies sector.

Why are these two linked?

Research has consistently shown that women are under-represented in a number of sectors and alongside engineering, digital is most definitely one of them. The proportion of women within the sector has decreased from 30 per cent in 2001 to 17 per cent in 2011.

Today I will be speaking at the Scottish Women in Technology conference at the offices of Cisco Systems in North Lanarkshire, which will be attended by around fifty women in the sector.

I see these women as role models to encourage more girls to consider careers in ICT and digital technologies, as well as other STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) areas.

Alongside the First Minister at Scotland’s first Women’s Employment Summit in September 2012, I announced £250,000 for CareerWISE, intended to do exactly that.

I hope to see the results of this investment, which has included female champions in STEM subjects getting out to our schools and taking the time to chat to girls about their work.

There are more women in Scotland in work today than at any time since the current records began in 1992 and women are represented in every sector in the labour market and at every level.

But it is clear that there is more that can be done. I hope as a result of this week’s activity we can encourage even more employers to make young people – including young women – their business.

Tags: First Minister, International Women's Day, technology

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