International Women’s Day (March 8) is here. The global celebration of women resistance and achievements in all areas of life (social, economic, cultural and political) is an annual opportunity to engage and be part of the efforts to promote gender parity.
Unfortunately, data from 144 countries in The Global Gender Gap Report (World Economic Forum, 2017) shows that the gap has widened for the first time since 2006. The average gender gap currently stands at 32%. Moreover, it estimates it will take 217 more years to achieve global gender parity.
Taking the Sustainability Development Goals as a framework to start working on gender equality (or the Weforum Closing the Gender Gap Project, for example) is a first step, but we still have a long way to go.
In Smartmatic there are three issues regarding gender equality that we feel closer to our business core and that we are passionate about. Therefore, we are continuously working on tackling the most pressing challenges on:
- Girls and women in STEM
- Gender parity in the tech industry/ business
- Women in elections (as part of women in politics)
This 2018 International Women’s Day we are pressing for progress in technology, engineering and politics. We’re inviting our industry partners, colleagues, and election technology stakeholders to join the crusade.
We will start by discussing at the @SXSW (March 10) How Latinas are removing barriers in Tech with our Communications Director, Samira Saba, and the rest of an exciting panel. You are all welcome.