Technology as a tool of women empowerment

In today’s world, any individual that fails to move with the tide of digitalisation is definitely building a mansion of stagnation in many spheres as the present world will drop such person like unnecessary baggage as the world evolves. Indeed, women empowerment cannot be pursued if women fail to embrace technology as the way of life. Consequently, access to technology, knowledge and the ability to shape it has become a fundamental tool that must be prioritised in the quest for advocating women empowerment and upholding the fundamental human rights of women.

To really fight for women empowerment, one of the core steps to take is to close the gender gap in technology and empower females irrespective of age, to embrace technological innovations that can advance equality by closing the gender gap and creating access and control of technology. It has been said that across the world, about 200 million more men have access to the internet more than their female counterparts; 21 per cent of whom are found to be less likely to own a mobile phone and when they have phones, more likely to have one without access to internet facilities.

The advantages of embracing technology is unlimited for women; it improves safety, is a source of early warning system, a veritable tool for networking, accessing information and mobile health care, financial transactions, monitoring of children while at work, pursue training and advancement opportunities and many other purposes that make life easier for women.

Though women are more vulnerable to bullying and harassment online, it doesn’t undermine the fact that they cannot evolve without embracing technology. The United Nations estimates that 95 per cent of harassment, abusive language, and derogatory imagery in online spaces is aimed at women, this should not send women offline, rather, it should reinforce the need to provide safe online spaces and protection against cyber bullying and all forms of online violence and harassment against women.

There is no way women can speak with a common voice and advocate for empowerment, improvement in pay gap, gender parity and upholding their fundamental rights without the use of technology as it is the bedrock of modern day advocacy; it creates network to exchange information, organise events across locations, opportunities for voices to be heard and a movement for a common cause.

Technology helps women to pursue opportunities, take up leadership roles, create a movement, tackle key gender equality issues on health, economic and political empowerment, health and women rights, fight for inclusive governance and collaborate to share resources and ideas as well as develop advocacy strategies.

At present, calls for more female participation in governance and the economy have become incessant and as a result, there is a need to ensure that women are equipped technologically to take up higher roles in today’s digital world. Technology is part of the process of positioning women to lead in the work place.

According to findings by a research based on a sample of more than 7000 leaders at high performing companies, conducted by a strengths-based leadership firm, Zenger Folkman, women are often better leaders than men. Findings revealed that women in technology were especially well-represented and ratings for the leadership effectiveness of women versus men were most pronounced in information technology, this further shows that embracing technology allows women to explore their talents and utilise their natural leadership skills.

To be continued.

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