As women techmakers, we need to pay close attention to and ensure that we are not replicating the biases, stereotypes and by extension the discrimination

Dr Kris Rampersad, AMBASSADOR for Women Techmakers, WorldPulse & Island INNOVATORs

On the shoulders of Giants

Happy International Women’s Day! When you stand on the shoulders of Giants you are fearless! Over the next few months we will reflect on the distance travelled and the paths still to explore in the journey to Gender Equality! Continue reading then Click to view video below

Moving Forward in the Post Covid World

For this year’s celebrations of International Women’s Day we can expend a sigh of relief as the worst of the COVID-19 Pandemic seems to be behind us. It has offered us time to reflect and put the past in perspective to define the way forward.

Snail pace of Change

While we celebrate, we still face the reality check issued by the UN, that it will take another 300 years before we bridge the gap at the current rate of change! The UN theme for this year’s International Women’s Day, 8 March 2023 (IWD 2023) is, “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality” as women and girls remain underrepresented across the creation, use and regulation of technology.

With the interlinked crises of climate change, geopolitical tensions, economic instability, and social inequality, the world needs to better harness the talents of women and encourage them to enter politics sooner rather than later.

Martin Chungong, Secretary General, Inter Parliamentary Union

Inequalities in access, affordability

According to UNWomen we can change that by paying attention to such inequalities as affordability, access to electricity, online privacy and safety, social norms and digital skills and literacy—all of which affects how women get and stay connected to the digital world.

Agents of Change in a Digital World

As women techmakers and members of the digital community, we also need to pay close attention to and ensure that we are not replicating the biases, stereotypes and by extension the discrimination. Of course there is much sensitivity to be developed among both men and women tech makers in this regard!

Roadblocks & Challenges

Over this year I will reflect on the roadblocks we encountered and challenges ahead and share the experiences of working towards women empowerment and gender equality over the past three decades as I develop this, the GloCal Knowledge Pot’s resources for gender equality! Enjoy a gallery of memories here of some highlights over the years! There is still much ground to cover to eliminate discrimination, in the tech arena as in the physical world.

Remembering A Giant Mentor

In the mode of reflection, below I share one of the newspaper articles that defined part of the action agenda on our road to gender empowerment and leadership. I do so remembering the joint actions with Hazel Brown, the leader of the Network of NGOs and one of the giants of the gender movement who passed away last year.

Get Involved

You can get involved as a sponsor, partner, advertiser and help with developing the platform, online or sponsor teas, talks and tour events that illustrate and troubleshoot the pertinent factors inhibiting gender equality and effective action! Make Contact to Find out how we can mesh our vision for Change here or through social media!

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From the GLoCAL Archives: Dr Kris Rampersad in the News

Women’s action mandate

International Relations Director of the Network, Dr Kris Rampersad said the Network is demanding these issues be integrated into all policies and decision making, budget design and implementation and action.

The release stated that the Women’s Mandate for Action presents women as a political constituency as has labour, the private sector and religious groups.

“Our constituency is one to whom political parties can make commitments for action and to whom they can be held accountable,” she said.

Rampersad noted that their goal is to transform the culture of politics in the country by ensuring all persons have equal opportunity to participate in public life and to ensure there is no discrimination either direct or indirect, on the basis of gender, ethnicity, class, age or sexuality.

She explained that women have been excluded from political decision-making at the highest level but they are confident of the positive impact their contribution will have on the development of our society.

“Our mandate for action which has emerged from our work of women’s organisations over many years and from commitments agreed to by successive governments as the Convention of the Elimination of All Rights and the Nairobi Forward Looking Strategies. These provide the basis for a comprehensive framework for the advancement of women and the enjoyment of basic rights to gender equity, the principles of which must further inform the national gender policy,” she said.

Rampersad added that a gender policy must reaffirm the commitment in the constitution to gender equality and social justice and provide a framework to guide and inform transformation of existing inequitable gender relations.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Newsday : newsday.co.tt : DARCEL CHOY THURSDAY 22 APRIL 2010

http://archives.newsday.co.tt/2010/04/22/womens-action-mandate/

About Dr Kris Rampersad

Dr Kris Rampersad is an award winning journalist, author and sustaianble development consultant, educator, researcher and outreach specialist, Google Women’s Techmakers’ and Digital Skills Ambassador, WorldPulse Digital Ambassador and Island Innovators’ Ambassador. Find out more here in this link

UN on International Women’s Day DIGITALL

United Nations, New York — Under the theme “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality”, UN Women, the United Nations, and its partners and allies around the world will celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD) on 8 March 2023, calling on governments, activists and the private sector to “power on” in their efforts to shape a safer, more inclusive, and more equitable digital world for all. A paradigm shift is needed to harness the potential of technology and innovation to accelerate progress on the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Press release: International Women’s Day spotlights massive costs to GDP and innovation caused by the exclusion of women from the digital world

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Today, a persistent gender gap in digital access keeps women from unlocking technology’s full potential. According to recent data, women’s exclusion from the digital world comes with massive costs for all, having already shaved USD 1 trillion from the gross domestic product of low- and middle-income countries in the last decade—a loss that, without an intended plan of action and suitable investment, is expected to increase to USD 1.5 trillion by 2025.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized in his message to commemorate the Day that “women today make up under a third of the workforce in science, technology, engineering, and maths. And when women are under-represented in developing new technologies, discrimination may be baked in from the start”. He also issued a call to close the gender digital divide, adding that “investing in women uplifts all people, communities, and countries”.

The disparity between women and men and girls and boys in relation to digital adoption and their relative opportunities to access, use, and benefit from digital technology remain a major barrier to equal participation in tech design and governance. Women and girls remain underrepresented across the creation, use, and regulation of technology. They are less likely to use digital services or enter tech-related careers, and significantly more likely to face online harassment and violence. This limits not only their own digital empowerment but also the transformative potential of technology and innovation as a whole.

In her statement for IWD, UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous said: “Women and girls have just as much right to access the digital world and prosper in it as men and boys. Their creativity, knowledge and perspectives can shape a future where technology contributes to transforming social norms, amplifying women’s voices, pushing forward against online harassment, preventing the perpetuation of algorithmic biases, and distributing the benefits of digitalization as the great equalizer to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.”

She added: “Our vision of equality, of what our world could be, for all of us, can and will include the equal enjoyment of the fruits of technology and innovation without fear of violence or abuse of any sort. Women and girls must be able to engage, create, learn and work, safely and productively either online or offline, making the most of all the opportunities in every sphere of life and at every stage of it, in education, in the economy, in society and in politics.”

A global analysis of 133 AI systems across industries found that 44.2 per cent demonstrate gender bias. The voices of women, girls, and other marginalized groups, historically sidelined or altogether absent in tech spaces, are urgently needed in decision-making processes. Gender-responsive digital technology represents an unprecedented opportunity for the global empowerment of women, to eliminate all forms of disparity and inequality in the digital age, and to transform innovation ecosystems.

At the IWD commemoration event to be held at UN headquarters in New York, UN and Member States representatives, technologists, innovators, entrepreneurs, youth, and gender equality activists will celebrate the women and girls who are championing the advancement of technology and innovation and their potential as a transformative mechanism for achieving gender equality. The annual event will also address the existing gaps for women and girls in accessing digital spaces and skills, as well as the dangers they face from online violence.

Around the world, an increasing number of stock exchanges are demonstrating their support for women’s rights and gender equality hosting bell-ringing ceremonies. This year UN Women Deputy Executive Director Anita Bhatia will join the opening bell at Nasdaq in New York on 8 March.

Also, in the context of IWD, UN Women and the Inter-Parliamentarian Union (IPU) presented the 2023 edition of the Women in Politics map, which shows concerning data regarding women’s political representation worldwide. The new data—as of 1 January 2023—shows that women’s voices and experiences are missing: less than 1 in 4 cabinet ministers is a woman, mainly leading on policy areas related to gender equality and women’s rights, while men still dominate economic, defence, energy, and other powerful portfolios; and women in top political leadership jobs worldwide represent only 11.3 per cent of countries’ Heads of State, and 9.8 per cent of countries’ Heads of Government. The new data also shows that the global proportion of Members of Parliament who are women has inched up to 26.5 per cent compared with 25.5 per cent in 2021.