Women and technology a focus on International Women’s Day

Author Moonshot.news

Published on: 03/03/2023

Women in tech is one focus for the 2023 International Women’s Day on March 8. A persistent gender gap in digital access keeps women from unlocking technology’s full potential, UN Women says. 

“Their underrepresentation in STEM education and careers remains a major barrier to their participation in tech design and governance. And the pervasive threat of online gender-based violence—coupled with a lack of legal recourse—too often forces them out of the digital spaces they do occupy.”  

“Innovation and technological change, and education in the digital age for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls” is the theme for a meeting with United Nations’ commission on the statutes for women on March 6-17. And the focus is for sure needed as data shows it is a long way to go for better gender balance:

• Women make up only 22% of artificial intelligence workers globally. 
• A global analysis of 133 AI systems across industries found that 44.2% demonstrate gender bias.
• The progress towards global gender parity is stalling and the risk of reversal is intensifying, the Word Economic Forum Global Gender Gap 2022 report shows.
• A survey of women journalists from 125 countries found that 73 per cent had suffered online violence in the course of their work.

The International Women’s Day campaign theme this year is #EmbraceEquity – while the United Nations’ theme is ‘DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality’. 

Data from Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) shows only six out of 200 parliaments around the world have gender balance or more women in their parliaments: 

• Rwanda, Cuba, Nicaragua, New Zealand, Mexico and United Arab Emirates. 
• None of the G7 most powerful nations are in the top 30 gender balance rating. Best is France as number 36 with 37.3% women. 
• Best European country is Island as number 7 with 47.6% women in the parliament.