Section 3 | RULES OF THE GAME anecdotal evidence that women are minorities at technical colleges and computer science universities,219 which was contradicted in accounts from several key informants. Another source cited a news article claiming that women account for about 90 percent of the Yangon Technological University’s 285 civil-engineering students and outnumber men majoring in architecture four to one.220 It may be that preferences are shifting as foreign investment affects jobs growth, or that opportunities are opening up in concert with male economic emigration. In addition to deficits in primary and secondary educational institutions, universities and colleges have long complained of inadequate facilities for digital technologies. Indeed, in 2013 a professor in Yangon said the “snail-paced speed” of the university’s internet connection rendered it almost useless. “The professor, who asked to be identified only as Zey, suspects that the slow connection, which usually turns off students, is yet another form of censorship.”221 In 2015 the Asian Development Bank assessed the ICT capacity of universities as part of a study on the e-governance readiness of Myanmar. The study found that “some universities in Myanmar produce high-caliber industry ready graduates with skills and expertise in ICT. However...skilled and experienced manpower [sic] at various levels (program managers, ICT infrastructure specialists, IT operation experts, architects, cyber-security specialists etc.) were in significant short supply both in the government and in the private sector.”222 The extent of the shortfall—10,000 average annual graduates with “basic degrees”— may be compared to Singapore, with 135,000 similar graduates yearly.223 Despite this apparent demand, interviewees rarely linked digital skills explicitly with ICT sector-specific employment opportunities for women (see figure 15). Figure 15: Frequency of Reported ICT-Associated Employment Opportunities in Myanmar for Females, by Sector Figure #: Frequency of Reported ICT-Associated Employment Opportunities in Myanmar for Females, by Sector Finance/Legal Tourism/service industry SME/entrepreneurship Other/unspecified Office Work Civil Society Agriculture ICT Industry 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 Frequency Ibid. ADB et al., Gender Equality and Women’s Rights in Myanmar. 221 Tupas, “Is Burma’s ‘Disconnectivity’ Deliberate?” 222 ADB, Myanmar: Design of eGovernance Master Plan and Review of ICT Capacity in Academic Institutions (Manila: ADB, July 2015), 21. 223 Ibid., 23. 219 220 Ending the Gender Digital Divide in Myanmar: A Problem-Driven Political Economy Assessment | 65