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Getting women into ICT BCNFemTech Skills Acquisition plan [Barcelona, Spain]
With a three-year roadmap and a budget of two million euros, Barcelona, partner city in URBACT s GenderedLandscape Action Planning Network, is engaging in a new government measure on gender equality in tech environments to combat the digital gender divide and promote equality in information and communications technology (ICT). Despite having a pioneering tech sector, women currently occupy just 26% of jobs in the ICT sector and only 8.6% of technical posts23 in Barcelona. The fifty-one planned measures are designed to change these numbers, increase women s presence in the sector, drive training opportunities and promote science careers among girls. The actions share four common goals: Facilitate women s access to ICT jobs: this includes the creation of digital training
programmes and jobs, such as the BCNFemTech skills acquisition plan, designed to get fifty women in vulnerable situations into professional positions in programming and web development.
Support women in the ICT sector: visibility and recognition of women s contribution to the development of tech industries is needed, along with the promotion of their involvement in public policies in this area. The measure therefore includes the creation of a BCNFemTech women s network and backing for tech projects by women entrepreneurs.
More women in public procurement: gender clauses are planned for public contracts with providers from the tech sector, along with the creation of an internal women s technology team to drive digital training among women municipal workers.
Science and tech girls: the promotion of science and tech careers among young girls is essential for ensuring equality in the digital society of the future. To this end, the roadmap includes a STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and maths) initiative for girls in primary school with the collaboration of the Mobile World Congress and agreements with universities to increase women s presence in technological study areas.
One initiative is the the BcnFemTech Training Programme, which offers 850 hours of training for fifty women working under precarious conditions to enable them to enter the labour market as professionals in programming and web development. It was developed in collaboration with Barcelona Activa, Endesa, Factoria F5 and the Fundació Formació i Treball. Women are identified for the programme by social services, or through the Làbora programme, Barcelona Activa s inclusion services, the Assistance, Recovery and Reception Service (SARA), Women s Support and Information Points (PIAD) or the Municipal Institute for People with Disabilities (IMPD).
23 Ajuntament Barcelona, Women and Feminism: social rights, global justic, feminism and LGBTI affairs, 'Technology', available at: https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/dones/en/technology-0
[ CALL TO ACTION ] How are smart cities, innovation and technological development connected to gender equality? What critical questions do we need to ask ourselves? The short video on the next page that was made by the URBACT GenderedLandscape network Lead Partner Umeå (Sweden) explores the issue further.
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