International Women Day 2023
On March 8, 2023, it was my honor to represent the voices of women and youth to empower women, youth, and marginalized children in innovation and technology. We shared our collaborative work on the open source community, which seeks to promote sharing in the digital age, as well as our training during the digital transformation, which equips youth with necessary skills such as data science. When women are at the center of development, innovative solutions are created for the marginalized and the most vulnerable, such as the disabled. Investing in women improves the lives of everyone, including children, women, men, the elderly, and people with disabilities.
Let’s work together to support women’s empowerment and increase their representation in science and technology through encouragement and support.
The Asia-Pacific regional commemoration
The International Women Day 2023 is being celebrated the achievement of all women and girls in the theme of DigitALL, using innovation and technology for gender equality. It is the opportunity to reflect on our efforts towards achieving the SDG and gender equality upon the digital era.
It was my pleasure to learn about good practices and strategic exchange from the speakers and panelists to ensure a more secure, accessible, inclusive and equitable digital world. We must accelerate our progress towards incoporating a gender-lens in the digital world.
We must ensure gender-inclusive environments for STEM education and careers, women and girls should have access to digital devices and have the autonomy to use them so they can leverage digital tools to improve their lives. We should empower and education women for them to be equipped with the sufficient digital access and skill, and increase the number of women in science and women in tech.
Protecting the rights of women and girls in science and technology, promote women’s peace and security, fight for women’s rights, and use innovation and technology to transform gender equality.
Opening Remarks
H.E. Ms. Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana welcome the women ambassadors, excellencies and the participants. She also highlighted the main challenges for women and girls including
- Gender bias and social norms
- Education perpetuates stereotype STEM — Women less likely to work in STEM education where it leads to the unaddressed women’s unique needs in design
- Growing digital divide, exclude the marginalized in digital transformation
Robust and targeted polices support, increase access, new initiatives, to include and increase female representation in STEM education and promote women entrepreneur.
Giving equal opportunity for women like us to flourish with the equal opportunity in the digital age.
“Leaving no one behind and leaving no one offline” — Ms. Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana quote to ensure the equitable and inclusive access to the digital world for all women and girls.
I would like to extend her words to not only to have access to internet and “online” but every women and girls should be skilled users, educated about internet safety, digital literacy and leverage digital tools to benefit themselves.
Ms. Sarah Knibbs, Regional Director, UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific celebrated International Women’s Day with the progress from UN Women.
Digital Tools and platforms are crucial to all women and girls since it provide access to information and supports, including employment, career information and opportunity to engage in entrepreneurship. Technology tis connecting with work, leisure, and play. Impact of the digital revolution has been disproportionate and highly gendered. Women are underrepresented in core adaptation, and often misuse which arise as a new human rights issue.
She presented a very worrying statistics of gender inequality with only 54% of women has access internet in the Asia and the Pacific and 85% of women witness and experience acts of online violence. Information and technology statistics have shown differences in IT careers and widening educational disparities affecting the leadership and gender divide in technology. Technology Design should incorperate by working with, and for women and girls.
1. Encourage women’s economic and social growth
2. The role of women in STEM innovation and gender equity
3. Women’s leading positions and roles at all levels
Young women and girls are the changemakers, and they should be equipped with equal opportunity. We must work together to turn this into reality.
It was great to hear UN Women’s priorities for advancing gender equality across Asia and the Pacific, and I am also looking forward to seeing our discussions turn into actions.
Presentation on Initiative of “Ambassadors for a Day Competition”
Ms. Gita Sabharwal, United Nations Resident Coordinator in Thailand
Ms. Gita mentioned the Ambassador for a day initiative for youth advocate to shadow ambassadors and head of UN agencies and experience diplomacy and SDG in action. It is the intergenerational strength that we can leverage learn and inspire each other.
Call of increasing equality participation is a right for all. Leaders championing gender equality, committed leverage digital literacy for policy making. Innovative thinking
H.E. Dr. Angela Macdonald, Ambassador of Australia to Thailand signifies International Women’s Day as a chance to celebrate women’s accomplishments and acknowledge how much work still needs to be done.
Technology that is inclusive for education, that upholds the rights of users in digital places, and that doesn’t exclude women and girls from STEM fields. Women must be safe online and exercise their rights fully.
The society should support all genders in their pursuit of education, employment, and involvement in digital technology. We have to ensure that everyone has access to technology and receives an inclusive education.
The Australia progress on gender equality:
1. Development of a new international gender equality strategy.
2. Gender equality will continue to be a top national priority policy
Australia will continue to partner with organizations to the advancement of women’s economic empowerment through leadership and decision-making, health, and services.
“Gender equality is the right thing to do and a necessary thing to do.”
H.E. Ambassador Eksiri Pintaruchi, Director General of the Department of International Organizations, Ministry of Foreign Affairs remarked that this year’s theme of digital innovation and technology for gender equality is very timely.
The remarkable rise and social exposure of COVID-19 expose the vulnerable in global health, and Thailand uses and empowers those further behind, such as through the use of telemedicine and mobile phones, by making services more accessible, available, and responsive to patients of all genders. Social protection and welfare reach out to more citizens and expand the government’s database. The government designs socially responsible measures. Transformative education has empowered women to learn, reskill, and upskill; promote female STEM education; and provide workshops and vocational training. Strive social changes, misinformation, and cyber scams leave the most vulnerable far behind. Raise awareness among the people and provide a strong voice for gender equality.
Youth Representatives
Ms. Sachee Pingsutthiwong and Ms. Ranchida Rojanaki, young “Ambassadors for a Day” shadowing Australia and the UN, respectively mentioned the importance of the digital age and the emerging power and opportunity for all women and girls. Furthermore, Ms. Ranchida Rojanaki mentioned youth participation and engagement in all levels including the discussion with the policy makers.
Women Ambassadors Secret to Success
- “When luck meet opportunity, so be always prepared” — Ambassador of Bahrain
- “Always have Friends, family and team” — MFA Thailand
- “Friends, network of friends” — Ambassador of Canada believes that women can easily develop social skills and network of friends
- “Value of Integrity,[…] doing what is right even when nobody is looking, […] will make you an effective and esteem leader ”- Ambassador of the Philippines
- “Perseverance and disclipline make the difference between [her] dream and the reality and learn from the experiences”-Ambassador of Colombia
Ms. Gita Sabharwal also conclude that “failure” and learning from the mistakes is a big lesson will bring you success in your life.
Interactive Dialogue
The Panel is drawn from representatives of the private sector, civil society, government, and other stakeholders. The panelists will discuss on:
- Barriers that hider women and girls participated in fully in the digital sphere.
- Digital Transformations and digital innovations to benefit women and girls
- Technology has the potential to widen inequality in the Asia and the Pacific
- Discrimination and gender stereotype faced by women and girls are the root cause of gender divide
Ms. Cai Cai, Chief, Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Section, SDD, ESCAP shared a presentation of the meeting from 34 governments and over 100 civil society organizations highlight 4 key areas:
- Internet Access
Ensure meaningful connectivity to close the gender digital divide which need to include gender equality in the development of new technologies. - Women in STEM
Only 35% of women and girls globally are enrolled in STEM subjects which we need to foster inclusive education in the digital age. - Financing
Access to affordable finances, Implement economic, labour and social policies since 80% of women entrepreneurs have unserved or underserved credit needs - Online Gender based Violence
Online and technology-facilitated gender-based violence and protect the right of women and girls online
Ms. Rebecca Razavi, Head of Public Policy & Economic Graph, Asia-Pacific, LinkedIn shared insights from LinkedIn promote gender equality by promoting equitable world of work for women and enhancing economic empowerment of all women and girls.
With the analytic of data, we realize that women are less in leadership role, with only 33% in Australia and 19% in India. This trend is still exist and keep growing. Therefore, we need education to drive change. We need to recognize the women’s job and support them on their work.
- Transition point to STEM careers with STEM skills
- Option of working on remote jobs
- Search for roles
- Career break which gives an extra career flexibility for women.
- Bias is taken out in the search of status, to ensure gender equality
- “skills first” search for roles to ensure less discrimination and stigma on women and girls
- upskill women in STEM
- #EmbraceEquity for women to share inspiring experience
Ms. Kirthi Jayakumar is a a feminist researcher working in the areas of Women, Peace, and Security, Transitional Justice, and Feminist Foreign Policy. She mentioned the disparity of accessibility to the internet and her work to the prevention of online violence against women and girls to the internet.
At UNWomen 30 for 2030 Youth Network, there are young people using innovation and technology to address the gender based violence online and develop a toolkit for feminist policy.
She viewed internet as a new frontier for youth-led feminist engagements and youth has the power to prevent gendered prejudice in the internet.
Ms. Rhea See stated that technology is an integral part of our existence and that the digital divide must be viewed through a “gender-lens.”She also emphasized the importance of empowering this generation of women in technology, entrepreneurship, and innovation to improve our lives. Utilize technology to encourage all sectors to promote women in STEM.
The government plays a crucial role in society by prioritizing “gender equality.” She enjoyss Tech has announced a significant partnership with the governments of China and Singapore. China’s tech agenda will facilitate the initiative of women in technology and the organization of budgets and programs.
They collaborated with Intercom in Singapore to promote women in technology and science.They note that when the government is involved, a highly effective “top-down approach” is possible. Women need a safe workplace, and “building as a team” will assist and ensure structure at work, reduce the gender gap, and compensate for it.
In order to convince government agencies to collaborate with you, you must present them with successful case studies, demonstrate that “women” can create the most advanced technology, and reveal the trends that demonstrate what women are capable of.
Furthermore, I would like to highlight the participation of women in the online spaces and how we, as a whole community, assist and empower women and girls in the digital age. We must ensure cyber security, the development of women’s abilities, the participation of others, and the generation of innovative ideas.
Conclusion
It was a fruitful discussion that enhanced my knowledge of gender-transformative innovation through shared lessons learned, the exchange of experiences and good practices, and prevalent challenges. The key discussions during International Women’s Day 2023 are:
- Digital Gender Equality, Accessibility to the Safe Internet
- Online violence against women and girls, which can be solved through the adoption of strong policies and frameworks, addresses the issue for women and girls.
- Meaningful youth-led initiatives using technology and innovation for gender equality
- Empowerment of women and girls and gender equality in STEM
- A call for partnership from experts, private sector, civil society, government, and the UN
Lastly, a call for ACTION to use innovation and technology for gender equality and having women and girls benefits from the advancement of digital era.
