International Women's Day

March 8, 2011 is the International Women’s Day. Many events will take place on that day all around the world and have been aggregated under:

http://www.internationalwomensday.com/

These include for instance special expositions in museum (on the role of ladies in farming in England), courses and workshops on re-integration of women after they have left work for a while or marathons to gather all women of different ages.

This day is also a good opportunity to be reminded of the role of ICT in gender issues and how it can empower women. Empowerment of women through ICT falls also under the mandate of WSIS and highlights the tremendous opportunities of ICT. In fact, women are mentioned straight in the second paragraph of the declaration of principles (WSIS Outcome Documents) and as well in paragraph 12, 29, in Action Line C4 (paragraph 11g), C6 (paragraph 13i), C7 for e-Health and e-Employment (paragraph 18b/e, 19, 20) and C8 (paragraph 23h and 24e).

These opportunities are to be found in bridging the gap in gender inequalities thanks to the anonymity that the technology offers and that reduces as a direct consequence discrimination. But not only. Technology is also a vector of capacity learning, and in the case of women who have left the working environment since a while, it can allow them to continue learning (e-Learning) or keep up with the innovations, while working also from home (tele-working).

A major problem remains the low engagement of women in that sector. The reasons for women being put off the technology are probably to be found among the image that the society has of women and technology, image that needs to be change. A high level meeting, open to everyone, on that very thematic will be held on March 10, 2011 (between 12:30-14:00pm) at ITU headquarters. More information can be gained under:

http://www.itu.int/en/womensday/Pages/default.aspx

If you plan to take part in any event that links ICT with the empowerment of women, do not hesitate to share it with us!

Thank you!