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WOMEN IN TECH – “I’D BLUSH IF I COULD”
I'd blush if I could is the title of UNESCO publication which borrows its name from the response given by Siri, a female-gendered voice assistant used by hundreds of millions of people, when a human user would tell ‘her’, “Hey Siri, you’re a bi***.”
Siri’s ‘female’ obsequiousness – and the servility expressed by so many other digital assistants projected as young women – provides a powerful illustration of gender biases coded into technology products, pervasive in the technology sector and apparent in digital skills education.
Today, women and girls are 25 per cent less likely than men to know how to leverage digital technology for basic purposes, 4 times less likely to know how to programme computers and 13 times less likely to file for technology patent. At a moment when every sector is becoming a technology sector, these gaps should make policymakers, educators and everyday citizens ‘blush’ in alarm.
These questions will be discussed during the third 2030 Digital Fasttrack Studios (DFS) to take place on 15 February 2021 at 15:00 -16:00 CET and will celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. The studio will highlight the gender divide in technology. While equal access to the Internet is just the first step in addressing the divide, it is also important to provide technical training so that women do not only consume Internet content and services, but also partake in jobs at technology companies, produce digital content and services, and further develop the technological competencies needed to innovate and manage their own companies.
The upcoming studio will also help to further understand the impact of the gender divide – beyond the numbers. It will include personal stories – behind the numbers – from the panelists and offer recommendations on policies needed to close the gender divide needed to realize our collective human potential.
The panelists are Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director for Telecommunication Development at the International Telecommunication Union, Roland White, Director for Global Diversity & Inclusion at Microsoft UK and Isabelle Collet, Associate Professor at the University of Geneva. The debate will be moderated by Michael Kende, Visiting Lecturer at The Graduate Institute Geneva.
The 2030 Digital Fasttrack Studios (DFS) are co-convened by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s Geneva Liaison Office, Microsoft Corporation’s United Nations Affairs team in Geneva, and The Graduate Institute, Geneva’s Centre for Trade and Economic Integration (CTEI). The initiative brings together representatives from the United Nations' agencies, permanent missions, academia, civil society, and the private sector to identify opportunities for digital technology to fast track progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Register here
Siri’s ‘female’ obsequiousness – and the servility expressed by so many other digital assistants projected as young women – provides a powerful illustration of gender biases coded into technology products, pervasive in the technology sector and apparent in digital skills education.
Today, women and girls are 25 per cent less likely than men to know how to leverage digital technology for basic purposes, 4 times less likely to know how to programme computers and 13 times less likely to file for technology patent. At a moment when every sector is becoming a technology sector, these gaps should make policymakers, educators and everyday citizens ‘blush’ in alarm.
These questions will be discussed during the third 2030 Digital Fasttrack Studios (DFS) to take place on 15 February 2021 at 15:00 -16:00 CET and will celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. The studio will highlight the gender divide in technology. While equal access to the Internet is just the first step in addressing the divide, it is also important to provide technical training so that women do not only consume Internet content and services, but also partake in jobs at technology companies, produce digital content and services, and further develop the technological competencies needed to innovate and manage their own companies.
The upcoming studio will also help to further understand the impact of the gender divide – beyond the numbers. It will include personal stories – behind the numbers – from the panelists and offer recommendations on policies needed to close the gender divide needed to realize our collective human potential.
The panelists are Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director for Telecommunication Development at the International Telecommunication Union, Roland White, Director for Global Diversity & Inclusion at Microsoft UK and Isabelle Collet, Associate Professor at the University of Geneva. The debate will be moderated by Michael Kende, Visiting Lecturer at The Graduate Institute Geneva.
The 2030 Digital Fasttrack Studios (DFS) are co-convened by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s Geneva Liaison Office, Microsoft Corporation’s United Nations Affairs team in Geneva, and The Graduate Institute, Geneva’s Centre for Trade and Economic Integration (CTEI). The initiative brings together representatives from the United Nations' agencies, permanent missions, academia, civil society, and the private sector to identify opportunities for digital technology to fast track progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Register here
10 February 2021
Last update:20 April 2023
