Empowering Women in IT (eWIT), a voluntary, not-for-profit women’s forum conceptualized and run by a group of senior women IT Professionals in India, celebrated its 8th anniversary in Chennai. The theme of this year’s event was
‘Ascend…Take Charge’. Founded in 2006, eWIT has been serving as a premier forum for exchange of ideas and pioneering initiatives to unleash the potential of women and their growth in the IT industry.
eWIT brings together on a single platform challenges faced by women in IT and decision makers makers who can make an impact in the workplace. With over 300 IT professionals of both genders, and eWIT’s partner organizations, in attendance, the event held special significance for the IT work environment and empowered women professionals with the slogan,
‘Ascend…Take Charge’.
C.N. Ram, ex-CIO, HDFC Bank and Founder, Rural Shores, was the Chief Guest of the event. Dr. Jayanti Ravi, Commissioner, Higher Education, Government of Gujarat, was the Guest of Honour. The event saw special addresses by Sujith Kumar J, Location HR Lead, Infosys Ltd and Jayashree Mitra, Global Technology Management Office, Standard Chartered Bank, Scope International. In their talks, these eminent leaders from the industry presented an in-depth analysis of the current scenario of Women in IT . With an array of suggestions and extensive support, women IT professionals were encouraged to make use of available avenues and
‘Take Charge’ of their careers.
After a very interesting Q&A session, this year’s Excellence Award winners were given away prizes. A Souvenir was also released on the occasion
As for the theme of this event, it comes across as a call to action for women professionals. In the words of Rama Sivaraman, President – eWIT and Chief Delivery Assurance Officer, Polaris Financial Technology Ltd, “Working women must take control of their destiny. Whether they choose to move at a slower pace, or they get back to a fast-paced career, they must do so without a feeling of guilt. This theme is to help women move out of the whirlpool of remorse and head into a progressive career trajectory, fuelled by self-empowerment.”
eWIT observes that women are not taking charge of these opportunities, or, in the words of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, ‘leaning-in’ enough. The thrust of this anniversary event, ‘Ascend…Take Charge’, was designed to make women aware of opportunities and give them inputs on how they should take charge, give their best and take up leadership positions.
About the stellar line-up of speakers at the event, the eWIT President, Rama Sivaraman said, “We firmly believe these speakers will take the conversation forward and provide a fillip to eWIT’s threefold objective - Expanding the women workforce at all management levels, enabling them to tread the career path by equipping them with necessary skills, and facilitating a better ‘work – life’ balance in IT/ITES Sector.”
Towards these objectives, eWIT has undertaken a host of programmes and workshops, apart from regular networking events that enable an exchange of knowledge and ideas. Last year, eWIT began an academic initiative, providing two sessions a year on premises by senior women professionals, to member colleges. In this short period, over 16 colleges are now institutional members. The first eWIT Student Convention was held in August 2013, under the theme “
Tomorrow is (Y)ours”. The annual eWIT Excellence Award contests have been big successes. eWIT has conducted close to 20 events last year alone, including networking programs, seventh iteration of the Excellence Award Contest and interactions with the legal experts on how to interpret and implement the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act.
eWIT is the only professional forum that is completely focused on empowerment of women in IT/ITES sector in India. Its primary objective has been to see the percentage of women employees in this sector to go higher at every level of the company, senior level executives.
About eWIT: Empowering Women in IT (eWIT) is a women’s forum conceptualized by a group of IT Professionals in India. Considering the high growth of the IT industry in India, its vast global coverage and the huge employment potential that it offers, the need has been felt to create a separate platform that addresses women’s issues in the IT industry. The forum is powered by STPI (Software Technology Parks of India). All companies in the IT/ITES space and all women associated with the IT/ITES industry by education and/or profession in India and abroad can become members of eWIT.
eWIT has a threefold objective – Expanding the women workforce at all management levels, enabling them to tread the career path by equipping them with necessary skills, and facilitating a better ‘work – life’ balance in IT/ITES Sector. To achieve the above objectives, focus is on conducting networking events, facilitating gender inclusivity in organizations and influencing governmental policies that would facilitate women to sustain their careers in IT. eWIT has a large number of corporate and individual members and it works with partner organisations such as SPIN, CSI, Prajnya, TiE etc. For more information, please visit
http://www.ewit.co.in 
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