Happy 2023 International Women’s Day!

Yesterday, March 8, was International Women’s Day (IWD). Our salute and greetings to all women all throughout the world!

Celebrated locally and globally in various ways, IWD calls attention to rights of women that should be, but not, accorded to them.

Every year, the United Nations chooses a theme related to women’s rights.

For this year, 2023, the IWD theme is- “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality.”

UN notes that while women have been contributing to the digital world, “their accomplishments have been against all odds, in a field that has historically neither welcomed nor appreciated them.“

Consider these statistics: “Women make up only 22 per cent of artificial intelligence (AI) workers globally.”

“Of 133 AI systems across industries, a global analysis found that 44.2 per cent demonstrate gender bias.

“A survey of women journalists from 125 countries found that 73 per cent had suffered online violence in the course of their work.”

Women are underrepresented in STEM education and have limited participation in tech design and governance.

“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.”

As “digital technology is opening new doors for the global empowerment of women, girls and other marginalized groups and as the digital age represents an unprecedented opportunity to eliminate all forms of disparity and inequality, from gender-responsive digital learning to tech-facilitated sexual and reproductive healthcare, “ the UN calls on “governments, activists and the private sector alike topower onin their efforts to make the digital world safer, more inclusive and more equitable” and “create a better future not just for women and girls, but for all humanity and all life on Earth.”

These suggested four steps for gender equality in innovation and technology: ONE, close all gaps in digital access and skills.

While “today, 63 per cent of women have access to the internet, compared to 69 per cent of men,” many marginalized women- older/rural women and those with disabilities face “greater connectivity barriers” as “race/age/disability/socioeconomic status/location all influence women’s digital access and use.”

Additionally, “factors like affordability/access to electricity/online privacy and safety/social norms/digital skills/literacy- all gender-mediated-” affect women’s connectivity.

“Explicitly working gender/intersectional perspectives into digital plans and policies, access, research through cross-sector coordination can be a crucial starting point

 “Governments investment in evidence-based programmes and initiatives, subsidies of smartphones/laptops for women/girls and incentivizing low-cost data plans ad digital literacy programmes” will be helpful in overcoming gendered digital access barriers.

TWO, support women and girls in STEM as there are only “28 per cent of women engineering graduates, 22 per cent of artificial intelligence workersandless than one third of tech sector employeesglobally.”

THREE, create tech that meets the needs of women and girls.

Women produce less data and less data aggregation due to digital access gaps. Also,

“aglobal analysisof 133 AI systems from 1988 to today found that 44.2 per cent displayed gender bias, with 25.7 per cent exhibiting both gender and racial bias.”

There is a need to create “more inclusive and less biased tech with human rights’ based design/regulation processes.”

FOUR, address technology-facilitated gender-based violence which “doesn’t end when women log off: with technology helping to perpetuate/heighten surveillance/trafficking/other forms of abuse.”

Social media has also become a key site of gendered disinformation/misinformation/sexist hate speech/more, undermining women’s online expression/movement.

Collaboration is needed to develop “expanded legal frameworks centered around human rights and survivor-informed approaches, coherent responses/strategies for mitigation, and improved reporting and moderation systems, to help take the onus off victims.”

Finally, teaching digital citizenship can help cover issues of online violence while also instilling empathy and ethical digital media use and teaching boys/men to become gender equality advocates.