Helping Women in India Launch Their Cybersecurity Careers
Breaking gender-based barriers in India
By Amanda Davis | Sr. Manager, CR and Environment
India has no shortage of qualified women in STEM. A 2020 World Bank report found that there are more women graduates in the STEM fields in India than in any other developed country.
Yet, a gender gap in the tech industry remains, with women accounting for only a fifth of the country’s cybersecurity jobs, according to the Cybershiksaa Initiative.
Gen works with nonprofits to address this disparity, tackling the barriers that exist for women and helping them find the tech jobs of their dreams. The nasscom foundation is one of those organizations, leading two major programs just last year to empower women in rural communities. The first was a large-scale cybersecurity training effort to equip professional women engineers with the skills and experience necessary to take their careers to the next level.
The program consisted of a 350-hour course—five hours a day, six days a week for 11 weeks—designed to cover advanced cybersecurity, threats and data protection. Each session was designed to help participants position themselves as the best possible candidates for top tech jobs.
More than 170 women engineers from the Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu states completed the training, and more than 80% later started jobs in cybersecurity.
Expanding Economic Opportunities for Women in India
Learning new digital skills benefits women across all industries, not just those pursuing tech careers. Studies have shown that digitalization is a key driver of economic opportunity for women in India.
With this in mind, our funding also supported the nasscom foundation’s training program for women entrepreneurs, particularly those in the agricultural space. For six months, the organization offered digital and financial literacy guidance to help women agri-entrepreneurs launch new ideas, reach new customers and grow their businesses.
More than 200 participants from Latur and Osmanabad completed the 30-hour crash course, brushing up on digital communication, social media marketing, smartphone best practices, e-accounting and e-commerce.
Fostering the Next Generation of STEM Enthusiasts
In addition to our nasscom foundation partnership, we also support the Agastya International Foundation. This year, the organization oversaw the return of the iMobile lab, a traveling van equipped with laptops and science experiments designed to inspire students in grades 7-8.
The iMobile Lab made stops at 15 schools in Tamil Nadu, hosting science fairs, community visits and science camps. These efforts reached an estimated 3,200 students, many of whom attend one of the 75% of schools in India that lack adequate science laboratories.
We believe that everyone should have an opportunity to learn digital skills and land the cybersecurity job of their dreams. For more information on how we support Cyber Safety education and training, read more impact stories on our blog.
Gen™ is a global company dedicated to powering Digital Freedom with a family of trusted consumer brands including, Norton, Avast, LifeLock, Avira, AVG, ReputationDefender and CCleaner.
