International Girls in ICT Day
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By age six, girls believe brilliance is a male traitMore than 130 million girls aren’t in school — UN Women is fighting to change this
Posted by NowThis Her on Wednesday, March 8, 2017
On International Girls in ICT Day, 27 April, UN Women joins ITU, the United Nations agency on information and communication technology, and girls and women around the world to drive global attention to the need for their full and equal access to ICT education.
The technology sector is one of the fastest growing industries globally, but experiencing skills gap. The European Commission, for example, has predicted a skills gap of over 800.000 ICT jobs in Europe by 2020; and the U.S. Department of Labor predicts around 1.4 million IT jobs in the same timeframe. The sector holds enormous opportunities for women with the requisite skills. But stereotypes and discrimination continue to deprive girls of the chance to excel in this field. Globally, there is a 12 per cent gender gap in internet use; in the world’s least developed countries, the gap widens to 31 per cent. Enhancing the use of ICTs to empower women is an explicit target of Sustainable Development Goal 5.
UN Women statement on International Girls in ICT Day 2017
Women are at risk of losing out on tomorrow’s best ICT job opportunities, whether in the public or private sectors, or as an employee or entrepreneur… Read more