The digital world needs women

Women make up 50% of the world's population and an increasing number of women earn university degrees compared to their male counterparts. At both educational and professional levels, women are just as capable as men of accessing the digital world. However, the gender gap is more evident in this area than in others, because not enough women enroll in STEM[1] disciplines that dominate today's labour market. This causes a digital work gap.

We must help to empower women so that they can develop digital skills and knowledge to actively contribute to the future world of work.

The shortage of women in the digital environment is more visible than in social or political sectors, due to the fast-growing importance of digital skills in recent years. We must consider that we may face a problem with irreversible consequences: if women do not pick up on STEM subjects they are left out of a work area that will guarantee most employment in the future. According to the European Commission, it has been demonstrated that companies that incorporate women into their staff obtain a 30% higher profitability than those companies that employ few female professionals. In addition, the incorporation of these professionals to the digital sector can cause a growth of 5% in countries like the United States and up to 34% in Egypt, according to the estimates of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

If the encouragement of more girls and women into STEM subjects succeeds, and thereby includes more women in the digital world, the economy will accelerate, competition will increase, and we will see more innovation and decreasing unemployment figures.

As a trade union we have a responsibility, together with society, to support an education model that encourages girls at an early age to study technological subjects by offering fair and equal digital working conditions for female professionals. We must help to empower women so that they can develop digital skills and knowledge to actively contribute to the future world of work.

The digital world needs women, and everyone's help is needed to achieve this.

The digital world needs women, and everyone's help is needed to achieve this.

[1] Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics