Women Entrepreneurs Information Communication Technology Hong Kong

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Women EntrepreneursInformation Communication
Technology Hong Kong

• Presented by Rebecca Szeto
• HKABPW
• at the
• Asia Pacific Womens Informational Network
  Centres
• E-Biz Training for Information and Communication
  Technology (ICT) Building for Womens Small
• and Micro-Enterprises
• Sookymyung University, Seoul, Korea
• July 26, - August 7, 2004

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Women EntrepreneursInformation Communication
Technology Hong Kong

• Economy and Current Outlook
• Women Status in Hong Kong
• Women Entrepreneurs
• Information Communication Technology for Women
• Summary

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I. Economic and Current Outlook

• Down turned of regional economy after 1997
  but improving now
• Increased Redundancy and unemployment rate
• highest in the past 50 years
• affecting male and females in the 40-50
  age bracket, especially women
• Experienced negative equity Real Estate market
  
• property has lost 50-60 of its value
• Changed of economy
• Many new small businesses/consultancies
  /small entrepreneurs
• Widened the rich and the poor - according to
  the
• 5th East Asian Womens Forum
• Hong Kong is an example of an industrialised
  economy with new poor

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II. Some Facts about Women Status

• According to the Womens Commission, there are
  over 250 womens organisations, from grassroots
  to professionals
• About 30 professional womens organisations in
  Hong Kong
• Executive population in Hong Kong is
  approximately 8,000
• for multi-nationals and SMEs (male and female)
• According to the Equal Opportunities Commission,
• Women still only earn 75 percent of what men
  earn for
• the comparable or same position

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HKABPW supports women in ICT and women
entrepreneurs

• HKABPW Bursary fund since 1979 is awarded to
  young women studying in a non-traditional field
  of study (Computer Science, IT...)
• Increasing number of women entrepreneurs become
  the members of HKABPW
• Support the Equal Opportunities Commissions
  (EOC) policy
• Example against gender-mainstreaming in the
  Education system
• HK Education Department favoured less intelligent
  boys over girls to go into the hard sciences
• Smart girls encouraged to go into soft subjects
  and get married
• The EOC asked the practice of gender stereotyping
  be stopped in the textbooks. The EOC sued the
  Dept of Education and won the case.

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H.K. Government lacks information on Women
Enterprises

• Checking with the Womens Commission and
• the Equal Opportunities Commission, there is no
  gender specific information on women
  entrepreneurs in Hong Kong
• In addition, no one group has done a study on the
  two questions asked for in this country report
• Condition and status of women's enterprises in
  the country
• (For example, definition, history, the number
  of women's enterprises, and so on)
• Government policy for women's enterprises in the
  country
• There is only fragmented and piecemeal
  information on women entrepreneurs from a
  particular group about their women's business
  organisation. Chinese University Gender Studies
  Program may have some information on this

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Summary of Information fromWomen Entrepreneurs
in Hong Kong-2003

• According to the Govt Census Bureau statistics,
  there were approximately 53,000 female
  entrepreneurs in Hong Kong in 2001
• However, from the study of Women Entrepreneurs
  in Hong Kong 2003, there are only 400 of those
  women who are members in a women business owners
  associations or women business organizations
  (only two women organizations were interviewed)
• What are the other 52,600 women entrepreneurs
  doing for support?
• Source Paper written by Profs Evelyn Ng
  Catherine Ng
• (Hong Kong University Polytechnic University of
  Hong Kong)

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Some of the major organisations which support
women enterprises

• Womens Business Owners Club (expatriate
  women)
• Hong Kong Women Professional and
  Entrepreneurs Association
• (Cantonese and Mandarin speaking for
  grassroots women and
• for the Mainland business market)
• - Connected to the All China Womens
  Federation
• Chinese Chamber of Commerce
• Hong Kong Association of Business and
  Professional Women (HKABPW)
• Other women entrepreneurs group such as
• Women in Publishing,
• HKGCC Women Executive Club 2nd Generation Women
  CEOs,
• International Women's Forum,
• HK Federation of Women, HK Jaycettes, Zonta,
  Soroptimist, Womens Forum, etc.
• Source by Profs Evelyn Ng Catherine Ng

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More Facts on women entrepreneurs in Hong Kong

• Lack of solid government information which shows
  a more holistic view
• Information out there is patchy and piecemeal of
  only a few organisations
• More research and information needed about women
  entrepreneurs in Hong Kong if the Government
  Census Bureau lists that there are 54,000 of them
  

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IV. Women and ICT in Hong Kong

• First Degree Graduates of University Grant
  Committee (UGC)- funded Programmes
• Academic Programme 1997/98 2001/02
• Engineering technology
• Female 540 (17)
  699 (24)
• Male 2,602 (83)
  2,181 (76)
• Graduates of University Grant Committee funded
  Postgraduate Programmes
• Academic Programme 1997/98 2001/02
• Engineering technology
• Female 123 (12)
  295 (21)
• Male
  927 (88) 1,084 (79)

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ICT for Women Employment

• Proportion of Women in the ICT Industry
• Women 22
• Men 78
• Source Survey on the Extent and Level of
  Positions taken up by Women in the Private
  Non-governmental Sectors in Hong Kong 2002,
  commissioned by the Womens Commission

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Distribution of Women by Occupation

• Disciplines
  Women Percentage
• HR/ PR 377,428 (30)
• Production/ Operations 300,925 (24)
• Sales/ Marketing 247,558 (20)
• Accounting/ Finance 166,937 (13)
• Purchasing/ Merchandising 42,495 (3)
• Engineering/ Construction/ RD 21,571 (2)
• IT/ MIS 12,254 (1)
• Others
• TOTAL 1,252,693 (100)

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Capacity Building Mileage Programme of the
Womens Commission

• 3 face-to-face courses on use of computer
• internet application,
• introduction to word-processing and
• introduction to spreadsheet
• the late night radio programmes can be accessed
  through the Internet

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More Institutional Mechanisms are at work

• How the Hong Kong Government dealt with the
  Digital Divide
• Promotion of IT among Women
• The Hong Kong Home Affairs Department (HAD) has
  been organizing various IT promotion projects,
  with special emphasis for the marginal social
  groups, i.e. women, elderly and new arrivals.
• These projects include, inter alia, Super Cyber
  Centre Project, Community Cyber Point Project,
  Yuen Long Pok Oi District Cyber Centre Project
  and
• IT Awareness Programme in 18 District under the
  IT Hong Kong Campaign.
• AIM Provide free access to IT facilities in the
  community and
• Basic IT training for the public.

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Further actions H. K. Government to promote ICT
Education for Women

• The Home Affairs Department has set up a Central
  Co-ordination Committee to
• Promote the IT Usage among Women in early 2001,
• Co-ordinate efforts among the Government and the
  NGO sectors in the promotion of wider use of IT
  among women.
• 18 Districts have set up Committees with an aim
  to
• Co-ordinate efforts and resources at district
  levels and
• Work with local organisations to enhance
  effectiveness of training and services provided
  to the public.
• Source Womens Commission

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• Further ICT Programs in Hong Kong
• IT Programs of the Internet Professionals
  Association of Hong Kong (IPROA)
• Global ICT Summit May 2004
• Webcare Program
• Help to make the internet accessible to all
  groups
• Other government IT programs
• Digital 21
• Targeted toward the student population of
  Hong Kong
• IT Program for senior citizens
• Targeted toward senior citizens

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Summary

• Need more information and studies about women
  entrepreneurs and ICT education for women in Hong
  Kong
• Hopefully, we will be able to obtain such
  information from the government and/or
  independent research consortium.
• Many thanks for providing the source and
  preparation of this presentation
• Professor Evelyn Ng of Hong Kong University,
• Professor Catherine Ng of Polytechnic University
  of Hong Kong,
• Daniel Sin of the Womens Commission,
• Elisabeth Quat of IPROA and
• Anna Fang of HKABPW
• Many thanks to the organizations to make it
  possible
• Asia Pacific Womens Information Network Center
  (APWINC)
• Pacific Alliance for Communications
  Technologies in Education (EduPACT)
• Business Professional Womens association (BPW)
• United Nations Economic and Social Commission
  for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP)

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• Thank you!