POTENTIAL OF TECHNOLOGY IN WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

Over the past 20 years, we’ve seen tremendous progress for women and girls worldwide: the maternal-mortality rate has declined by almost half; today, girls and boys are enrolling in primary school at nearly equal rates; and more countries than ever guarantee women’s equality under the law. But it’s also unquestionably evident that, when it comes to full participation for women and girls in all facets of society, we’re not there yet.

According to the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2020, with the current rate of progress, it is predicted that gender parity will not be attained for the next 99.5 years.

Yes, another hundred years.

"Society today is witnessing an ongoing paradigm shift in gender relations," said Professor Scott(Professor Jackie Scott, from Cambridge’s Department of Sociology in the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences) "We have gone beyond the male breadwinner/ female homemaker post-war family. Dramatic changes have taken place in the workforce and enormous progress has been made in policy, but a gap remains in women’s attainment in the world of paid work, and this relates to the unequal division of unpaid work in the home."

Young women today live in a world of immense challenges and serious risks, but also a world of incredible opportunity and expanding possibilities.
To build a better world for all, we need to address gender inequality and discrimination from an early age onward. Based on their gender, girls and boys are confronted with marked differences in opportunities and constraints. These differences tend to become more pronounced as young people come of age. Adolescent girls and young women may find their freedom of movement, their educational, personal and economic development, and their security and life prospects severely limited.
The task now is clear. To build the world we want, a world free of poverty, a world with zero hunger, a world with peace and justice for all, we must empower young women and girls who are systematically left on the sidelines of today.

Modern Technology

Modern technology is a marvelous thing-it can increase accuracy and efficiency, perform tedious and redundant tasks,improve the decision making process and in general, make life and work a lot easier. And if that’s not enough, technology can also help to advance gender equality. When speaking of the ubiquitousness of the internet, it’s important to remember that access still remains a problem in rural areas and even urban low-income areas. But for the most part, internet access, automation, and other digital tools have helped to remove some of the barriers keeping women from pursuing educational opportunities, participating in the workplace, and having their voices heard.

Technology in Education

Given the importance of technology, it’s no surprise that jobs in the tech field are in high demand and pay well above the national average. Software engineering roles are still some of the hottest technology jobs in the country – if not the world. But as we know, most of these professionals and students are men.

Potential

Technology can bring powerful positive change to women’s lives; it offers economic empowerment and border less jobs and the reduction of unpaid care work.

It can alert them to rights that are denied or unknown to them, bypassing traditional, off-limits or hard-to-access channels of information. It can empower them to question norms and offer new horizons and perspectives.

Its power to build communication and engagement can help break down old power structures and societal constraints. It has already been important for cross-cultural learning and understanding, helping women in many regions to understand their potential, skills and capabilities and to become effective in society. Contributors gave the examples of Arabic women and women in Afghanistan living in traditional and ‘closed’ societies, for whom information technology had opened up new horizons.

Information technology also makes ‘lightening quick’ engagement possible and, more than that, has also been shown capable of creating longer-term ‘thick’ engagement through issue-based platforms and software tools.

Finally, the internet is a highly accessible avenue towards learning for women and can help them fill the gaps in their STI engagement. It can keep them aware of technological developments and encourage them to adopt innovative practices and can allow for grassroots development rather than leaving people helpless while they wait for government or some other agency to deliver solutions.

Education

Education can be transformative and must be a policy priority. Continued skill development and STEM education will need to be an integral part of education, and girls need to be included very early on at elementary school level. Teaching needs to be hands-on, applied and real-world.
Technology and STEM teacher training is critical to the quality of the education delivered.

Mentoring and skilling-up significant numbers of women will be a key ingredient of technology- focused education that reaches girls, and it will need to be focused on its likely benefits in daily life

To keep up with technology changes, human resources will require PPP to make sure that skills and skill development is sustainable. A clear motive for investing in high quality education for all is that highly skilled and innovative labour will be valuable resources as technology evolves.
Women’s entrepreneurial skills are important too, and they need the skills and knowledge to commercialize their own inventions.

If the development and distribution of STI is not inclusive, then emerging technologies in particular may generate extreme inequalities, and as natural resources become more scarce, technology will be an important resource to redress the balance and sustain good living and working conditions for all.

Acting to combat stereotypes

Work to diminish the power of stereotypes needs to take place at every level in every sphere – from top to bottom of society, and at home, school, in organizations and in the political and social arenas.

We need to raise awareness among primary social agents – parents, families, immediate community circles –since they are the educators who influence girls’ perceptions most, starting at birth. Care, learning and interaction in the early years; teachers and curricula at school; and whether girls are allowed access to hands-on learning environments at home or in education.

Conscious and unconscious bias in mass and social media has to be challenged – seeing is believing, said contributors, and these fora are powerful influencers. But so too is interaction with peers and the socialization process, and this focuses attention on the need for positive role models and mentors to build girls’ confidence, show them the possibilities and help them overcome obstacles. Women leading women helps inspires yet more women to break through the mental chains placed on them.

In some communities, there was a real danger that those forces and agents who are unwilling to relinquish power to women might deny them access to education and healthcare as a way of maintaining their control. It might be possible to anticipate this kind of backlash and mitigate the blow back.

Key factors that help perpetuate female stereotypes should be identified. For instance, a move towards equal care responsibilities at home would make a difference in creating opportunities for women. Equally, moves to shift gender norms needed to take into account male norms and involve men in the conversation. A focus on changing men’s mindsets should consider the drivers behind male mindsets of rage, repression, and scarcity, and include men in gender diversity initiatives. Men’s involvement in changing stereotypes adds a layer of legitimacy, whether real or perceived, and increases buy-in.

Finally, technology can be used to combat and debunk a powerful aspect of stereotyping - taboos such as breastfeeding, menstruation and FGM. It can be used to educate and, with repetition, condition.

"Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive. Both men and women should feel free to be strong…it is time that we all perceive gender on a spectrum not as two opposing sets of ideas."-Emma Watson