Copernifemme : Empowering Modern Women with New Technologies !

Who would imagine that the person responsible for the final assembly of Boeing… is a woman?
Industrial professions are no longer reserved exclusively for men. Women first entered discreetly, often through the small door. Today, they have a career there. And even if they are still in the minority, they are less and less contested in their functions, because their skills are recognized in the same way as those of men.
Industrial companies have recently begun to integrate women into top management. Of course, the majority of them are found in the support functions traditionally assigned to women in all sectors, mainly as human resources, marketing and communication managers. But they also seek responsibilities in more operational and technical jobs, such as production, research, sales and many others.
But let us not be pessimistic, things are certainly moving too slowly, but in the right direction. Today, the dynamic and innovative industry sector is making a real effort to communicate its job offer and its desire to integrate women into its various professions. More and more young women are committing themselves to scientific and technical training courses to work in the industry tomorrow.
Industry, a sector that offers varied careers and wants to open its doors to women
The industry communicates, and the first results are felt in the choice of training for young people. But the strength of stereotypes is still very much alive, and it is said to be at the root of occupational inequality in its entirety. No, not all jobs in the industry require you to wear a blue suit and dirty hands. Still today, this sector is all too often assimilated to the difficulty and filthiness of the service sector and is a source of discouragement for women who are more interested in the tertiary sector. Moreover, it is still a widespread belief that technical professions are reserved for men!
But the industry is struggling to recruit and is notably lacking apprentices. The players in the sector have understood the importance of feminizing their workforce to increase their pool of candidates and the mindset of recruiters is beginning to change. More and more actions are being carried out at a national and regional level to raise awareness among women of the various opportunities and careers offered by the industry, as evidenced by the multiple events organized during Industry Week.
The difficulty of the industrial sector and changing working conditions
In addition to stereotypes, this occupational segregation in the industrial sector is also often due to a laudable concern for the protection of women in the face of the hardship of particular occupations. Let us first recall that it was women who held the industry during the war.
Moreover, this is a debate that no longer needs to be held because the working conditions of this sector have changed significantly in recent decades. With technical progress, the majority of tasks are mechanized and few industrial jobs today require real physical strength on a daily basis, supposedly incompatible with female physiology.

Too many women do not dare to negotiate their hiring wages or hesitate to ask for an increase. In the metropolis of Detroit, a hundred employees experienced training sessions organized by the Detroit’s Business School. Very useful.
Ladies, you have to dare! While one in two men negotiate their wages when they are hired, only one in eight women do so. Once they are in office, they are also reluctant to ask for an increase. This explains in part why women earn 17% less than their male colleagues in equivalent time and occupations. By changing their behaviour, women could therefore partly reduce this gap. And it’s possible.
Detroit’s Business School, a large school in Detroit, has launched experimental workshops to give women all the keys to a successful wage negotiation. Already about a hundred of them have been selected to follow the first session, which will end on 11 October. The goal is to train 10,000 women free of charge by the end of 2018, and 15,000 by 2022.
A collective awareness
The workshops provide practical tools to define strengths and added value, to be effective in recruitment interviews and to know the market value. Then, it is a strategy to negotiate a salary or raise.
The testimonies also highlight a certain resignation on the part of these women, tired of asking without ever obtaining. Some also confine themselves to sexist stereotypes, and feel that they are less valuable than their male counterparts.
Conducting negotiations with a seasoned recruiter
The workshops allow them to get back on their feet, regain self-esteem and establish a negotiation strategy. The first piece of advice they get? Delay as long as possible the time to address the issue of compensation when recruiting.
There’s bound to come a time when the recruiter will ask “how much do you want?” No question of tac to tac, you have to turn the question around and say,”How much are you offering?” When it is no longer possible to circumvent the subject, one should not give a figure but a salary range. The workshops also prepare participants who are in the workplace and who wish to see their remuneration evolve by providing them with elements for their arguments and the parade to employers’ standard responses (no budget, we will talk about it again…).
Learning to value yourself
The first participants were enthusiastic about the training. “I’m not in the claim. We must move forward voluntarily and positively. But until now, I thought that the company was going to realize the quality of our work, that it was going to come and pick us up,” says Christina, 46 years old, who, after having worked in sales, now holds a position in marketing. “My posting is recent, I’m not going to ask for a raise right now. But when I think it’s a legitimate time, I’ll have the weapons to do it,”she says.
Another participant, Vakisha, also comes out boosted by these workshops. “I had a hard time realizing my potential, I don’t know how to value myself too much,”says the 30-year-old woman who graduated top of her class. She now knows her value in the labour market.” If my employer doesn’t do anything to keep me by reassessing my salary, I’m ready to go,”she says. It has taken a first step, increasing its visibility on social networks by positioning itself in active research.

The world of technology is rapidly evolving with different people benefiting from these changes. Well, these people include the women in society. Unlike before where that all women could do was to take care of the home and their families, with new technologies at hand women can be able to take care of their families and thoroughly study for their dream careers. A lot of companies are employing women all around the globe while others become their bosses.
The positive impact of technology on women.
Employment opportunities.
With time women have realized the need to study various path and embrace various differents careers such as web designing and development, engineering and also IT.
A woman with such curriculum can quickly get a job in multiple companies, especially in the marketing field. Companies are always looking for a specialist to aid them in designing SEO sites for marketing their products. Others need staff to help them with IT maintenance. So if you have professional training in such jobs, you have the same opportunities with a man to secure employment.
Helps them run businesses.
You need to know technology to run a business. For example, when communicating with your clients, sending invoices, quotations or in supplying your goods, you can quickly reach all these people via an email or just a phone call. Therefore if you have such knowledge, you can run a business smoothly, and your communication is fast and easy as well. All these activities do not require workforce as all you need is a computer with a good internet connected and a well-structured email address.
Technology helps in marketing a business.
Women are venturing in various businesses such as selling products and offering other services. Create an SEO website to use it as a platform for marketing your goods.
An SEO campaign requires you to create excellent keywords and useful content such that Google can use the two items to rank you among the top searches. You can also use other platforms like youtube to showcase how your products or services can impact the users.
Other technology platforms to use include social media which can profoundly help you generate leads to your sales website. For the women who do not have a significant capital to start up a firm, you can effectively market your products from the comfort of your home using the listed platforms.
Easy management.
With modern new technologies, a woman can run a business and at the same time manage her home. You can install a device in your home and connect it to your phone such that you can easily track what is going on in your house and if your kids are taken care of.
Also, there are various applications such as Skype which allows you to communicate with the people from afar and if you are not able to go to the office, you can always rely on your orders of the day via Skype. The same case applies to when you are not able to attend a board meeting. Just record your speech, and via projector, you will be able to participate in the discussion.
 

As we speak of a fourth industrial revolution, we realize that it is more than ever necessary for women, especially Muslim women, to finally be able to take advantage of the opportunities associated with the consequences of the third industrial revolution.
In countries in the Middle East, a majority of women are found in scientific fields. In Iran, for example, 80% of engineers are women.
Experts estimate that there are even 35% of tech women entrepreneurs in this region.
Pushing women towards new sectors
Contrary to this finding, it is estimated that women account for 3 to 30% of the workforce in Europe. According to figures provided by the European Commission, less than 30% of the workforce in the profession is female.
We are faced with an extremely negative observation. However, it is a sector that contributes directly to 5.9% of GDP in Europe and accounts for more than 50% of Europe’s productivity growth, with a shortage of around 300,000 skilled people. In France, the industry of the future represents more than 35,000 jobs per year and 10,000 net job creation.
It is, therefore, more than ever necessary to push our women towards these new sectors, especially those of the Muslim faith. Because in Europe for example, the many prejudices linked to “the French woman of Muslim faith” follow her in every moment of her life and especially during her job search.

 
Many external and internal barriers are breaking down and making this process difficult. Are we going to be discriminated against about our name, undoubtedly too Arabized to their taste? Are we going to be asked to withdraw our veil? As many questions as many women are asking themselves and experience has shown that the answer is often “yes.” According to the High Authority for Against Discrimination, 57% of complaints filed for religious discrimination concerned women wearing the veil.
Thus, even before the refusal of employers, Muslim women find themselves putting up internal barriers, particularly those linked to stereotypes and Islamophobia in society.
This is what Dina Zherfi, a polytechnic, and physicist at the CNRS, puts forward in an article published in Le Monde. According to her, the constant devaluation of French Muslim women in the media leads to a devaluation of their self-image, their work, and their skills.
Faced with this, what solutions are available to us, how can we restore these women’s confidence?
Can having more women in technology, start-ups and entrepreneurship help combat the Islamophobic climate they face?
The widespread use of the Internet and social networks is currently playing an important role in the empowerment of women. More and more women are starting businesses. They can be found on different websites or simply on Facebook or Instagram.
Thanks to these technologies, women can find a place in society independently of the stereotypes associated with their status as Muslim women, and beyond the recurrent discrimination, they face in the labor market. They find freedom and fulfillment, and play a crucial role in creating a more egalitarian future, inspiring other women and providing a concrete solution to socio-cultural challenges.