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Women's Day is undoubtedly an occasion for celebration, but we must also use it as a juncture to reassert ourselves to continue the 'unfinished' struggle for gender equality in all spheres of our national life as a country, nation and as communities constituting our rainbow nation.

It is reassuring to note that our Government has the political intent and will, as well as the policy instruments in place to continue the task of achieving gender equality in most spheres of our national life.

However, we should not take women's equality or wider human rights for granted simply because these are guaranteed by the constitution. In fact, we should champion such rights as work-in-progress to ensure that equality becomes socially institutionalised, endemic and entrenched as a practice in our lives as a nation and country.

As our country enters the critical and ongoing phase of intensifying our struggle for economic liberation and equality, much more attention should be given to advance the prospects of women in commerce, entrepreneurship, education, science, engineering and technology.

Focussing on the advancement of women in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector would be an important area to champion. WomanIT, a Finland based organisation committed to broaden the participation of women in Science, Engineering and Technology, sums up the imperative role of women in ICTs as follows:

"Women need ICTs for the same reasons as men: to get more information to carry out their productive, reproductive, and community roles; to conduct their businesses, as a service of employment and to work in the ICT industry; to find resources for themselves, their families, their work, and their communities; and to have a voice in their lives, their community, their government, and the larger world that shares their issues and problems. In summary, they need ICTs to function in a digital world. Or as we say in WomanIT: 'to prevent technology bypassing women.'"

Unfortunately, most women in South Africa, like in many other countries, have to grapple with the historical and cultural challenges of how boys and girls are socially conditioned with regard to technology. This negative technologically social conditioning, together with several other factors, continues to be a barrier for the entry of large numbers of women, specifically into the ICT sector and generally other technological industries.

For instance, technical and technological skills have traditionally been a male domain. Generally, in most homes, girls are not encouraged, guided or supported to take up technology. Customarily parents give their girls toys designed in ways which completely lack any components steering them toward experimenting, dismantling and rebuilding.

Consequently, girls fail to develop skills in handling devices and technical equipment or any experiential-grasp of the fundamental rules of mechanics and technology. Therefore, their daring and conviction in their own mathematical and technical capabilities also fails to develop.

These gender stereotypes remain barriers to women choosing ICTs and other technological career paths, and hold them back in the workplace and marketplace. Studies have shown that such gender-based role perceptions, the division of labour on the basis of such perceptions as well as concepts about men and women in general are formed in early childhood. However, research has shown that when given equal opportunities girls could excel in technology, no less than that of boys.

An ICT skills audit, conducted in 2005 by the Department of Trade and Industry, shows that there has been a very positive movement in changing the demographics of available human resources in the ICT sector. However, there is a concern that the numbers of professionals with degrees and those with higher tertiary qualifications are on the decline. Similarly the demographics at managerial and supervisory levels in the ICT sector still continue to show large discrepancies between women and men, and predominance of white males.

Also a 2006 study commissioned by the Embassy of Finland in South Africa, titled 'Women in the Information and Communication Technology Sector in South Africa', the state of ICTs was summed up as follows:

"South Africa has an established, but relatively small base of highly skilled, predominantly white, male ICT professionals, although a more demographically representative workforce does appear to be emerging, particularly at the lower end of the ICT skills spectrum. Women still make up a disproportionately small percentage of management (between 18-20%) and still earn much less than men."

Redressing this imbalance in order to ensure full participation of women in the ICT sector is crucial. The ICT industry is seen as one of the key drivers of the South African economy and the ICT sector has been identified as one of the key sectors by the South African Government through its various national initiatives.

In addition, the Government has taken a proactive stance on ICTs, and mandated the Department of Communications (DoC) to use ICTs for economic development and the creation of decent work. Furthermore, the ongoing efforts by our colleagues in the Department of Science and Technology to create more conducive conditions for South Africa's inventive genius and ingenuity to flourish is very encouraging for future technological breakthroughs in our country.

The ICT sector remains a technological hub where breakthroughs and the birth of new technologies and entrepreneurial opportunities could be spawned which could exponentially impact on our development both as a country and continent. More especially during an economic downturn, the ICT industry may well have the possibilities of leading the economic recovery and renewal of the global economy.

Not only is the DoC tasked by Government to broaden and expand the ICT sector by enhancing South Africa's ICT capacity and capabilities to bring it on par with international best practice, but also to bridge the racial and gender based digital divide.

On the other hand much more research has to be commissioned by both government and private enterprise to make labour market statistics on the ICT sector more readily available. Such statistics would enable the Government and the private sector to regularly evaluate the state of the ICT sector with regard to employment and occupational categories. Of course, the rapid and ongoing technological developments and changing occupational categories due to convergence (fusion of content with connectivity) makes ICT statistics even more problematic.

ICTs are very pervasive in the modern economy and all sectors in the economy are involved in computer and communications technology. This cumulative and multiplier effect of ICTs would ultimately have a synergistic impact on our country. Of course, more effective coordination and cooperation between Government, stakeholders in the ICT sector and citizens at large would contribute to greater outcomes.

The study titled 'Women in the Information and Communication Technology Sector in South Africa' also points out the threats posed by women's marginalization in the ICT sector as follows:

"Not only is the low participation of women in high-level ICTs a problem for women, but also for the country and the industry. Women are missing an increasing number of technology-related job opportunities and run the risk that technological developments will not be relevant to their needs. A country cannot compete in an increasingly global ICT market if half of its talented citizens are not participating. It is important that women should be in the position to influence and direct the ICT sector. Continued exclusion of women from ICTs implies that women will have few opportunities to influence the ways in which these technologies develop and affect their lives.

"Moreover, the ICT industry is losing the talent of skilled women who can bring to it a richness and diversity of thought and perspective and help alleviate the shortage of skills, which is exacerbated by their lack of participation. Without women as an integral part of the workforce, the ICT industry is bereft of many potential contributors to the formulation of government and research policy and the development of technology that benefits communities as a whole; it is also deprived of a broader set of perspectives in the design of critical information systems."

The Government is well informed and passionate that South Africa needs to move towards a broader skills base that strongly reflects the demographics of the country, and that stimulates the participation of previously disadvantaged individuals, especially women, namely in science, engineering and technology. Although an increasing number of graduates are women, they still represent a minority in many of the science disciplines.

The Government, private enterprise, parents, educators and other stakeholders should intensify their energetic partnerships to confront with renewed commitment the cultural and societal norms that determine that science, engineering and technology are not perceived as good career options for women.

Such spirited partnerships, if consistently implemented and pursued, would provide a sound foundation to ensure that technology would not bypass women, let alone any other South African.