Unleashing untapped potential: Harnessing the digital age to empower women and girls

• Published date: 10 March 2023
• Publication title: The Phnom Penh Post

New technologies and innovations are reshaping our world and its future, often at a dizzying pace. Yet women and girls continue to be left behind in this burgeoning digital universe. How, then, can we harness these developments to create a better future for all of us? This year's International Women's Day theme, 'DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality,' seeks to answer exactly that question.

We know that women and girls are less likely than men and boys to use the internet or own a smartphone. In fact, only 54 percent of women in Asia and the Pacific have digital access, cut off from opportunities to move any digital needles forward. The root causes are many and varied: deep-rooted discriminatory social norms, increased gender-based violence (including online violence), and the unequal distribution of unpaid care and domestic work. Addressing these impediments to women realizing their full potential requires our joint and immediate attention and response.

One child, one teacher, one pen

When and where women and girls are discouraged from studying and working in science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) fields, we let them down. And we have left a whole generation of women and girls behind. We need the talents and voices of women and girls brought to the boardrooms and coding rooms. Today many innovations in AI, medicine, entertainment, transportation, work and other fields treat men as the standard and ignore women's physical and social differences - to the detriment of half of the world's population.

Getting more women into careers in technology starts with breaking down the gender stereotypes that prevent girls from studying STEM subjects. Comprehensive changes to the way STEM subjects are taught and targeted programs to support girls' learning are needed. In Viet Nam, the Ministry of Education and Training has updated the country's National Early Childhood Education curriculum on 'de-stereotyping' women and girls and has included gender-sensitive budgeting into the Education Sector Plan. Through changes such as these, governments can foster girls' enthusiasm for technology, expanding the future digital workforce.

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