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Technology is a Women's Human Rights Issue

Technology is a Women's Human Rights Issue

Global Fund for Women CEO Musimbi Kanyoro explains why access to and control over technology is critical for the future of women's human rights, and explains how IGNITE: Women Fueling Science & Technology will change the conversation about women's role in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and information communication technologies (ICT).

From the Internet to mobile phones, technology enables us to connect with each other and the world around us in new and innovative ways. As technology becomes an increasingly essential part of every aspect of human existence—from education to employment, politics to creativity — the ability to access, navigate, and shape technology is critical to women’s participation in all sectors of society. Yet there is a serious gender divide when it comes to technological access, literacy, and influence. Women and girls are missing, excluded, and dropping out – whether it’s online, in the classroom, or in the world of work.

A global technology revolution is taking place, and if women and girls aren’t part of it, the future for women’s human rights is bleak.

A global technology revolution is taking place, and if women and girls aren’t part of it, the future for women’s human rights is bleak.

Global Fund for Women’s new online multimedia project IGNITE: Women Fueling Science and Technology is a global platform to demand change. IGNITE gives voice to girls and women who are demanding a place at the table. It shares the stories of women and girls leading innovations in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and information and communication technology (ICT), and it demonstrates how addressing the global gender gap in science and technology will unlock creativity, propel innovation, and create equality.

In the wake of the Arab Spring, the United Nations declared Internet access to be a basic human right. Yet at the end of 2013, only 40% of the world’s population has access to the Internet. Women are coming online more slowly and later than men, with an estimated 200 million fewer women than men online in 2014. If nothing is done to address this gap, it is projected to grow to 350 million within three years. Mobile phones are more and more essential to daily life (indeed, more people around the world own mobile phones than toothbrushes), but women are 21% less likely to own a mobile phone than men.

At Global Fund for Women we are passionate about this issue because the organizations we work with tell us that access to technology—for themselves and the women they exist to support—is critical to advancing women’s human rights. In fact, in a survey commissioned in 2013, fully 80% of our grantee partners wanted greater access to and fluency in technology. Those women and girls on the ground are telling us that now is a pivotal moment to invest in technology to fuel women’s human rights.

Beside the lack of access to technology, we also know that too few women are leaders, innovators, and decision makers in an increasingly technological and connected world.

The results of this gender technology gap are two-fold. First, women and girls experience inequality because they are less able to access and use existing technology, making it increasingly difficult for them to access and participate in education, politics, healthcare and economic and community life. Second, because women and girls have effectively been left on the sidelines of the global technology revolution — considered “consumers” but not “creators”—today’s technology does not reflect the diversity of women’s experiences, imagination, or ingenuity. By limiting the participation of women and girls in science and technology, we too often limit ourselves to only half of the world’s ideas.

Bringing women online and embracing their leadership and ideas will not only help bring gender parity, it will have a global economic impact. Recent studies have estimated that 600 million additional women and girls online could boost GDP by up to USD $18 million. Studies also show gender diversity in the workplace results in better collaboration and greater diversity of solutions and results – surely something everything every academic institution, company, and government should be looking for.

Our governments and the international community have an obligation to enable and protect the human rights of women and girls everywhere: including their rights to meaningful use and development of technology. By removing barriers to women and girls’ access to technology, we will enable opportunities for connection, education, engagement and imagination. The value of these opportunities to women and girls’ greater equality is unquantifiable. We have no way of knowing what new ideas, inventions and solutions this access will unleash. But can you imagine?

Get Involved!

Join me and the Global Fund for Women as we call for more equal access to technology for women around the world, and for more equal representation of women in science and tech fields, by signing our IGNITE petition. We will deliver the Petition and your signatures to the Executive Director of UN Women on International Women’s Day in March 2015; as well as to the Director General of UNESCO and the Secretary-General of ITU. We will also deliver the Petition and your signatures to the Chair of the 59th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, in March 2015; and to the President of the General Assembly of the United Nations. Sign the petition now >>

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We also want to hear from you! Add your story to the Be the Spark collection and help us flip the script on women and girls in science and technology.

You can also support our work to ignite change on the ground today! Your investment in Global Fund for Women’s Technology Fund will help women around the world use technology as a tool to build power and drive action. Help us increase women’s access to and control of technology, and help grassroots organizations use technology to advance women’s and girls’ human rights. Support women and girls using technology to address the world’s most challenging problems. Learn more about the Technology Fund and the types of grantees your donation could support, and make a donation today>>

Join me in calling on the world to recognize that technology – using it, shaping it, and leading it – is a fundamental issue of women’s human rights.

About Musimbi

Musimbi Kanyoro is a passionate advocate for women and girls’ health and human rights, and social change philanthropy and is the current President and CEO of the Global Fund for Women. Dr. Kanyoro is an accomplished leader with three decades of experience managing international non-governmental organizations, global programs, and ecumenical agencies in cross-cultural contexts. She is a strategic leader who inspires people, and mobilizes action and resources. She is the author of dozens of articles, hundreds of speeches and opinion pieces and has written and co-edited 7 books. Musimbi is a frequently sought after public speaker. Dr. Kanyoro also serves on several International Boards and working groups including the Aspen Leaders Council, the UN High level Taskforce for Reproductive Health and the boards of CARE, IntraHealth and CHANGE. Dr. Kanyoro has PhD in Linguistics from the University of Texas, Austin and a Doctorate in Feminist Theology from San Francisco Theological Seminary. She was a visiting scholar of Hebrew and the Old Testament at Harvard University. She has received three honorary doctorates and several recognition awards, including a leadership award from the Kenya Government and most recently she was named as one of the 21 women leaders for the 21st century by Women’s E-News.

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