NEW YORK, MARCH 6 – Emerging technologies and digital access can greatly improve the well-being, education, health, and livelihoods of women and girls. However, a significant digital gender gap remains, limiting the equitable benefits of digital transformation. Starting today, the Commission on the Status of Women– an intergovernmental body dedicated to gender equality and women’s empowerment – will address this problem in its 67th session. The group will revisit the gendered impacts of innovation and identify recommendations for a more inclusive and equitable digital evolution.
The digital age is creating new and unprecedented opportunities to improve the lives of women and girls around the world. Digital technologies are rapidly transforming all spheres of life, including our economic, social and political systems—establishing new entrance points and platforms for historically marginalized groups.
It is also creating unprecedented threats to their wellbeing. Online spaces provide new venues for violence against women, offering perpetrators increased anonymity and impunity. Discrimination in the tech sector and bias in automated systems themselves perpetuate and further entrench gender inequalities. And a lack of global laws and regulations leaves vulnerable groups further exposed to rights and privacy violations. Gender inequalities exist in terms of connectivity, digital education, as well as access to the actual technologies.
All these issues will be discussed until March 17. Italy is committed to play its part for a more safe and equal digital space and empowering women everywhere, the Italian Mission said on Twitter. The Italian delegation, composed by Members of Parliament, representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the two Italiuan Youth Delegates, will be lead by the Minister for Family, Natality and Equal Opportunities Eugenia Roccella. Italy will also organize two side events, the first tomorrow with UNICEF, UNESCO and the Group of Friends for Education and Lifelong Learning on digital education, and another on March 9, on ending female genital mutilation and child marriages. (@OnuItalia)
