Archived Newsroom • Press Release |
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Tech Needs Girls: World leaders draw up roadmap for female tech
education and careers push
Different strategies tailored to developed and
developing markets will be key to attracting young women to careers in
technology
New York, 26 April 2012 – Global leaders from the US,
Europe, Africa and Asia joined together today to debate and define a roadmap
that will help break down barriers and overturn outmoded attitudes in a bid get
more girls into technology-related studies and careers.
A high-level dialogue held at New York’s Institute of International Education
and hosted by the International Telecommunication Union, the UN-specialized
agency for information and communication technology, identified misguided
school-age career counselling, the popular media’s ‘geek’ image of the
technology field, a dearth of inspirational female role models, and a lack of
supportive frameworks in the home and workplace as factors that, together, tend
to dissuade talented girls from pursuing a tech career.
The debate brought together leading international figures and champions of
gender empowerment including Melanne Verveer, United States Ambassador-at-Large
for Global Women’s Issues; Lakshmi Puri, Deputy Executive Director, UN Women;
Mignon Clyburn, Commissioner with the US Federal Communications Commission
(FCC); Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner
for the Digital Agenda; and Jasna Matić, State Secretary for Digital Agenda in
Serbia.
It also featured lively discussion from industry leaders including Alethea
Lodge-Clarke, Programme Manager of Public Private Partnerships for Microsoft;
Monique Morrow, CTO Asia Pacific with Cisco Systems; Juliana Rotich, Ushahidi’s
pioneering Executive Director; and Sarah Wynn-Williams, Manager of Global Public
Policy for Facebook.
Inspired by the tremendous dedication of NGOs, universities, government
agencies, industry and others around the world in organizing Girls in ICT Day
events today, participants sketched our a basic blueprint for more
successful approaches to attracting school-age girls to the fast-evolving
technology field, and agreed to work together to change attitudes and boost
female tech enrolment rates.
In his welcoming remarks to an invited audience of over 200 gender, education
and technology experts, ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré said: “Over the
coming decade, there are expected to be two million more ICT jobs than there are
professionals to fill them. This is an extraordinary opportunity for girls and
young women – in a world where there are over 70 million unemployed young
people.”
Dr Touré emphasized the need to cast aside outdated attitudes that are
keeping young girls from considering technology as a career option. “ICT careers
are not ‘too hard’ for girls. ICT careers are not ‘unfeminine’. And ICT careers
are certainly not ‘boring’. Encouraging girls into the technology industry will
create a positive feedback look – in turn creating inspiring new role models for
the next generation.”
The event also featured very special guest Joanne O’Riordan, one of only
seven people in the world with Total Amelia, a congenital birth condition
causing the absence of all four limbs. ITU flew Joanne to New York from her
native Cork in Ireland to take part in the event, so that she could give her
perspective on the vital role of accessible technology in personal empowerment.
In an inspirational speech, the 16-year-old, who celebrated her birthday in NY
just prior to the event, told the audience her motto in life had always been ‘no
limbs, no limits’.
“I use technology in all aspects of my life . . . I was just one year
old when I first began to explore the use of technology with our old computer. I
figured out how to use it by simply moving my ‘hand’ and chin at a faster speed.
Today I can type 36 words a minute and for someone with no limbs, I think that’s
an incredible achievement,” she said.
Joanne concluded by throwing out an ambitious
challenge to the industry leaders present at the debate and the
thousands of technology experts watching the event via global webcast, asking
them to work on creating a robotic system that could help her and others with
disabilities or age-related problems live richer, fuller lives. “I’m asking the
women here, who are the leading women in their fields, to start doing what I do
every day – think outside the box. To think of ways and means to make technology
more accessible to the people who really need it. Women are better than men at
most things, so why not technology too?”
ITU’s Dr Touré closed the event with a call for partners to collaborate with
ITU on a three-year ‘Tech Needs Girls’ campaign focused around four ‘Es’:
empowerment, equality, education and employment. “This is a tremendous
opportunity for us all, working together as partners, to make a real
difference,” he said.
Annual international commemoration and
promotion
‘Girls in ICT Day’ is a new annual event on the UN calendar, and is
celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday in April. It was established
through a formal Resolution at ITU’s four-yearly Plenipotentiary Conference in
2010.
This year, in addition to the New York high-level debate, over 100 Girls in
ICT Day events in were held in more than 70 countries worldwide. These events
extended invitations to teenage girls and university students to spend the day
at the offices of ICT companies, government agencies or academic institutions
and to meet with female role models working in the technology field, in order to
give them a better appreciation of the many exciting opportunities available in
the ICT sector.
ITU and its partner WITNET provided
support to Girls in ICT Day event organizers worldwide, sharing flyers, banners,
event organization toolkits, and helping organizers with sponsorship ideas and
coordination with other partners.
ITU Member States in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Europe all made
a strong case for the creation of an empowering environment that encourages
girls and young women to consider a tech career. Civil society organizations,
academia and committed individuals also proved invaluable partners in the
celebration of these events, often working with very little funding in their
efforts to raise awareness among communities, teachers and career advisers of
the excellent job prospects in the ICT sector. “Special mention should go to
Cisco, a long time partner of ITU, which today organized more than 40 different
events globally – and I know that many other tech companies have also been very
active in promoting events and celebrations,” said Dr Touré.
An archived webcast of the New York Girls in ICT Day high-level debate can be
viewed at:
1f8a81b9b0707b63-19211.webchannel-proxy.scarabresearch.com/ibs/sg/20120426girls/index.html.
Follow the discussion around the event on Twitter at @ITU_News (http://twitter.com/itu_news)
#GirlsinICT and through ITU’s Facebook page at
1f8a81b9b0707b63-19211.webchannel-proxy.scarabresearch.com/facebook.
Broadcast-quality footage of the debate will be available for download from
16:30 EST at:
http://1f8a81b9b0707b63-19211.webchannel-proxy.scarabresearch.com/en/action/women/Pages/girls-ict-day-2012.aspx. Video from
the event will be available for viewing on ITU’s YouTube Channel at:
www.youtube.com/itutelecommunication
Photos from the debate will be available for download from ITU’s Flickr site
at:
www.flickr.com/photos/itupictures/
The full event programme is available
here.
Information, pictures and videos from all national and local Girls in ICT Day
events are available on the ITU Girls in ICT
Portal.
For more information, please contact:
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Sarah Parkes
Chief, Media Relations
and Public Information
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Gary Fowlie
Head, ITU NY Liaison Office
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