On April 25, 2019, the Republican Scientific-Practical Conference on the International Women in ICT Day was held jointly by the Presidium of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, the State Committee for Family, Women and Children Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Institute of Information Technology of ANAS.

Women scientists, pedagogues and professionals working in the field of ICT in state, scientific and educational institutions of Azerbaijan participated in the conference.

Opening the event, Academician Akif Alizadeh, president of ANAS, said that one of the important goals of the information society is to increase the role of women in information and communication technologies (ICT). 

‘ICT, which is a technological platform of information society, has played an important role in ensuring women's rights and freedoms, as well as, is the means to effectively eliminate all forms of social inequalities in society’, the President of ANAS noted.  

Increasing the role and special weight of women in the ICT sector today is one of the topical issues and international Telecommunication Union (ITU), UNESCO and other international organizations pay great at this issue. 

Noting that the conference was held every year on the initiative of the ITU since the 2014 "International Women's Day in ICT", A.Alizada emphasized the importance of the event for the identification of scientific problems in this direction.

Emphasizing that the gender issue is one of the main priorities of Azerbaijan's state policy, the President of ANAS said that this policy was put forward by national leader Heydar Aliyev and was successfully continued by President Ilham Aliyev:

"As a result of this policy, today Azerbaijani women are represented at the highest levels in state bodies, in science, education and medicine, business and civil society sectors, in literature, arts and sports."

He pointed out that the number of women in academic technical professions, including ICT sector, has increased, and this tendency has been demonstrated in Azerbaijan recently. In 2018, the percentage of women in STEM fields is 53% and 47% of them were men.

"The level of representation of Azerbaijani women in the scientific and technological spheres significantly exceeds the relevant world average, he stressed.

At the end, A.Alizade noted that the Council of Women has been operating in ANAS, its scientific institutions and organizations, thus allowing the council to solve problems and concerns of women working in the scientific environment more effectively.

Later, the Chairman of the State Committee on Family, Women and Children Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Doctor of Science in Political Science, Professor Hijran Huseynova delivered a lecture on "The role of ICT in scientific creativity and profession of women" and said that ICT gender equality, one of the key factors in expanding their capabilities.

The speaker underlined that ICT provides a wide range of opportunities for the development of women's scientific creativity and the acquisition of different professions.

Laboratory Director of the Institute of Management Systems of ANAS, Ph.D. in Technical Sciences, Associate Professor Gulchin Abdullayeva made a report on "Women in ICT: overall picture in the international sphere and in the country". She spoke about first-ever use of Electronic Computing Machines, told about the first Small-Electronic Computing Machine in the former USSR and Europe.

Speaking about the role and prospects of ICT in the solution of gender problems, correspondent member of ANAS, doctor of technical sciences, professor Masuma Mammadova spoke about the factors determining women's involvement in ICT. Mammadova said that 20-30% of 29 million qualified IT specialists in the ICT sector are women.

She informed about the share of women in the ICT market of EU countries."The decline in the gap between women and men in employment over the last decade is seen as the key factor in Europe's economic growth," she said.

She said that 17.2% of IT-specialists in the European Union are women. She presented the percentage of female IT professionals in leading ICT companies, the number of students in higher education institutions in our country and the number of students studying on specialty groups, and the ranking of IT-graduates by gender. The scientist spoke about the reasons for the low share of women in the ICT sector, saying that currently, women have a great opportunity to enter the dynamic ICT sector.

Dr. Rena Mirzazade, Chairman of the Women Council of ANAS, Professor Rena Mirzazade gave a lecture on "Gender culture in ANAS and ICT ", the role of women in the ICT sector in the country and the role and prospects of ICT in addressing gender problems.

Senior researcher of the Institute of Folklore of ANAS, Doctor of Philology Hikmat Guliyev spoke on the theme "The role of communications in the development of social status of women in the cultural environment of Azerbaijan" and spoke about the relationship between the occurrence of communication means and changes in social and cultural spheres. he said that the rise of women's social status in society is directly related to communication opportunities. According to him, each of the information revolutions in the development of humanity has been accompanied by strengthening women's position in society in one way or another.

Academician-Secretary of ANAS, Director of the Institute of Information Technology of ANAS, academician Rasim Alguliyev spoke on the theme "Women and Personal Data Protection Problems" and talked about the normative-legal basis of personal data protection and international challenges.

R. Alguliev noted that the development of ICT for personal information on personal and family life has led to more transparency in the protection of personal data in our country with the Ministry of Transport, Communication and High Technologies, Ministry of Justice and others.

"The black market of Individual data is formed on the international and country level", he noted. According to the academician, the prices in the "black market" vary depending on the individual's social status, and hacker courses are being organized to form human resources.

It is also difficult to fight cybercrime since, in most cases, payments are made by cryptanalysis.

R. Alguliev said that the protection of personal data in national mentality is of great importance, noting that personal information about women's personal and family life has great sensitivity.

He put forward his proposals on academic personal data protection and noted that it is essential to carry out multidisciplinary research on its social-psychological, legal, technological, and so on. aspects. Also, he emphasized the necessity of highly-qualified personnel training in the field of personal data protection. He called on women to become more initiator and active in the realization of these proposals.

At the end of the conference, presentations were discussed, proposals were put forward.

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