Title: Women in the ICT sector in Kosovo - barriers and opportunities

Authors: Herolinda Murati-Leka; Doruntina Ajvazi; Florijana Syla

Addresses: Faculty of Business and Economics, South East European University, North Macedonia ' Faculty of Economics, University of Prishtina, Kosovo ' Faculty of Economics, University of Prishtina, Kosovo

Abstract: Information and communication technology, as a big discovery, is a tool that has affected the entire society by giving access to huge quantities of information. As a result, the ICT industry is considered an important factor for economic development in the knowledge society. Moreover, ICT has an important impact on gender equality and women empowerment. This paper shows an overview of barriers and opportunities by analysing the survey that we conducted with 105 Kosovar females respondents from the ICT industry. The findings from the survey show that women in the ICT industry in Kosovo face barriers based on gender discrimination. On the other hand, the opportunities that we generated from the survey let to know that ICT can provide the economic and social empowerment of women, and this should be a message for ICT companies, government, and society.

Keywords: career barriers; career opportunities; gender research; ICT; labour market; women participation; Kosovo.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTTC.2022.124340

International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation, 2022 Vol.19 No.2, pp.195 - 211

Received: 15 Nov 2020
Accepted: 21 Dec 2020
Published online: 25 Jul 2022 *

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