Closing the digital gender gap in partnership with Google this International Women’s Day
For International Women’s Day this year, we are excited to be partnering with Womenwill, an initiative by Google, to raise awareness about the gender gap in technology and raise money to support programs designed to help women make the most of the online world.
Technology—access to it, control of it, and the ability to create and shape it—is a women’s human rights issue. Women are far less likely than men to have access to the Internet: the gender gap for Internet access is 250 million, and growing. Women and girls are not only under-represented among technology “consumers”, they are also far less likely to be technology leaders, decision makers, and creators.
But women and girls around the world like Afsana in India are working to close the digital gender gap—and they need your support.
Girls in Afsana’s family are not allowed to study after ninth grade. Despite the pressure to drop out, Afsana joined FAT’s (Feminist Approach to Technology) Tech Center to continue her studies where she learned basic technical skills and deepened her understanding of women’s rights issues. She’s committed to working toward a future career in science and technology. Through participating in various FAT projects, Afsana has become self-confident and a vocal advocate for women’s rights not only in her family but also in her community.
A long-time Global Fund for Women grantee partner in India, FAT is creating a movement of tech-savvy young women like Afsana through confidence-building workshops, skills-building courses, and technology training.
Global Fund for Women invests in local projects like FAT around the world that accelerate gender equality in and through technology, and we drive campaigns to spark change by amplifying women’s voices globally. We give grants to groups using technology to make strides for women and girls in their communities.
Join us and Womenwill for International Women’s Day to drive much-needed resources to grassroots women’s groups around the world that are using technology to drive gender equality and empower women and girls.
With your help, Global Fund for Women will support more women’s groups like FAT and like Inwelle Study and Resource Centre in Enugu, Nigeria. Inwelle is teaching teenage girls computer and ICT skills to help them earn money to support their families and pay for secondary school fees. As a result, rates of early and forced child marriage are declining. Our grantee partner Society Without Violence in Armenia launched a Rapid Response Unit and database to support victims of domestic violence and ensure incidents would no longer go unreported. Afghan Institute of Learning’s Mobile Literacy Program uses mobile phones and text messaging to teach women and girls to read and write.
This International Women’s Day, help Global Fund for Women create more opportunities for women and girls around the world to use and create technology as a tool to build power and drive action. Let’s get these critical tools of social change into the hands of women and girls, and witness the phenomenal changes they create.
Want to know more about Global Fund for Women’s work to close the gender gap in technology? Explore IGNITE: Women Fueling Science and Technology, our online campaign and multimedia project that elevates more women’s stories about the gender gap in tech, and highlights the dynamic between technology and gender equality.
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