LACNIC Calls for Greater Participation of Latin American and Caribbean Women in ICT

“Inspiring Women to Participate in ICTs” is the title under which three prominent women of the Latin American and Caribbean digital community shared their experiences with a broad audience during LACNIC 25, the event recently held in Havana, Cuba.

Panelists included Ayanna Samuels of Jamaica, Anna Torres of Wikimedia and Inés Robles of the IETF, and was moderated by Laura Kaplan of LACNIC.

Kaplan stressed that the goal of thepanel was to promote women’s involvement in the technical community and also to inspire other women to participate and submit proposals having to do with their specific fields of action.

Samuels highlighted the impact that gender equality would have on the ICT sector and described the barriers currently hindering the work of women in the Caribbean digital world. She also brought to the table potential solutions to the problem of gender inequality in the ICT sector. To conclude, Samuels shared her personal journey in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Inés Robles then shared her experience and spoke of her role in an IETF group called ROLL (Routing Over Low and Lossy Networks). She noted that Universidad de Mendoza, the university where she works, promotes female participation through a group that invites inspiring female engineers to share their experiences and encourage students. Her final message was a call to women to “dare to do things they believe they will not be able to achieve because of their gender.”

“Remember –she added– that you are the ones setting the limitations; that anything worthwhile is not easy; that society sometimes discriminates unintentionally and we are the ones who must distinguish when it does.”

In turn, Anna Torres shared with the audience her experience working on Wikimedia.

See the video of the panel here