Mrs. Marta Selva is the present President of the Instutut Catalá de les Dones (Catalonian Institute of Women). She is a woman engaged with the achievement of equality and linked to the academic world as Professor in the Department of Audio-visual Communication and Publicity of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She assures that, luckily, "we are more than what they believe."
Text and photo: Lou AcedoWhich is, for you, the profile of women who work in the area of the new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)?I really resist of speaking of a unique profile. I believe that diversity is an asset of women and this is not rhetorical, I really believe it. I think that there is a dominant sector formed by young women, with a medium-high education level, with access to professional training or university education, lets say in an environment where the new technologies play an important role. But we cannot forget that there is another sector formed by older women belonging not only to the urban areas, but also to the rural ones that have access to the new technologies thanks to the public administrations that have centred their attention to the ICT sector. For that reason, it is also necessary to pay attention to these mature women who are already integrated in the labour and business market.Do you think that the ICT sector, as it is a new market, offers the same opportunities to men and women?Yes, I believe so. Although it seems the opposite, the new technologies are no mystery for women. If we look back in time, historically speaking, when cinema was invented, the first director of a film was a woman, Alice Guy-Blaché, therefore women have integrated themselves to the new technologies sector since always. The problem appears when social factors prevent the improvement of women accessing to the ICT sector. These social factorsdetermine not only the obstacles that prevent woman to acceding to the ICTs but also to give an opinion on this sector with the purpose of improving it.Then we face again gender stereotypes...With stereotypes that derive in publicity campaigns that are of little attractive for women. Technological products are created with a purely masculine target, avoiding that women are also potential users and this can be a disincentive to the participation of women. These behaviours make us think that we continue living in a society in which predominates a model of men as producers and consumers and the model of producing and consuming women is not taken into consideration. Evidently, little by little, women are making people hear their voice. The existence of technological products "easy to use", specifically designed for women makes this disintegration evident.Apart from stereotypes, what other obstacles do women find in the ICT sector?All I know about the obstacles that businesswomen encounter in the labour market, I know it because the women themselves have told me about it. The main problem is the difficulty to obtain a credit in order to start a company. We have a problem, people still think that women are not sufficiently prepared to demonstrate their credibility or to communicate that their needs are needs that have to be considered. If weare still in this situation, this it is its main obstacle that generates the rest. Our technological needs are relegated to a fifth level of interest in the technological enterprise bet. And in the advertising bet they continue to consider us a public with irrelevant needs. For that reason I believe that we have to detect the core problem, we have to diagnose what the main obstacle is in order to understand how other obstacles are derived.Lets speak about solutions...The ICTs offer the potential possibility of reorganizing time. I avoid the use of the term “conciliation” because I believe that what really is necessary to do is to reorganize the concept of work and productivity associated to being continuously present at the workplace. I believe that it is time to leave Taylor ‘s model, which is more than arguable, of chain production that cannot be interrupted. A change of mentality has to come from Government administrations, and this change cab be obtained thanks to the proposals that arrive to us through the Associations. The new social realities demand more effective economic models and the ICTs offer practical tools to achieve this change.How does the Catalonian Institute of Women help businesswomen who would like to begin a career in the ICT sector?We mainly worked with the associative net, giving the maximum support possible and acting like interlocutorsbetween the associations and the Government. Evidently there is a space for political negotiation so that the needs that come from the Businesswomen Associations are considered. The role that Associations such as the Catalan Association of Businesswomen and Women Executives, and others, is very important because they are the ones that seek changes and work for the implementation of different practices in the financing and the management of companies. For that reason we work with the associations and not with companies.Where can a woman go to if she wants information on how to open her own business?She can obtain information through the Associations of Businesswomen that exist in Catalonia or go to the Labour Department of the Generalitat of Catalonia. For any other type of consultations they only have to go to the pertinent association or the specific department. Our responsibility is that the Associations are able to give support, from the experience, to new businesswomen in health, creativity or technical areas. The knowledge of these experienced women is what had to be put in circulation to be able to work on real bases. Thanks to this way of working, Catalonia has one of richest associative nets, thanks to the dialogue, and the perseverance of these associations to propose new ideas that foment improvements of the situation of women in the labour market.
