The benefits of empowering women to participate in the digital economy are obvious. The key to success will be initiatives to teach digital literacy and expand access to Internet-enabled devices, as well as efforts to boost the confidence of women and girls, who have long been discouraged from competing against their male peers.
MASERU – From Women in Tech conferences to Girls Who Code programs, initiatives aimed at enabling girls and women to enter the so-called STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) have proliferated in recent years. But change has been slow to arrive: while the percentage of women in the labor force has gradually increased, it remains significantly lower in the tech sector. Given that sector’s central role in driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution, this amounts to a major drain on economies’ potential.
MASERU – From Women in Tech conferences to Girls Who Code programs, initiatives aimed at enabling girls and women to enter the so-called STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) have proliferated in recent years. But change has been slow to arrive: while the percentage of women in the labor force has gradually increased, it remains significantly lower in the tech sector. Given that sector’s central role in driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution, this amounts to a major drain on economies’ potential.