Girls In Tech

The fifty-fifth session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York from 22 February to 4 March 2011. Representatives from Member States, UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all regions of the world will attend the session. There will be a number of activities, including interactive dialogues and panels, during the two-week session. I’m in particular excited about the track panel discussion on Wednesday 23^rd- it is one of the topic that is dearly to my heart. A group of leaders from all over the world will be in discussion over access and participation of women and girls to education, training, science and technology, including for the promotion of women’s equal access to full employment and decent work. Be sure to watch the live webcast this Wednesday, 23 February 2011, 10am-1pm; Or if you are nearby pls stop by the conference room #3, North Lawn building.

This year following highlights key focus areas of CSW 2011.

• Priority Theme: Access and participation of women and girls to education, training, science and technology, including for the promotion of women’s equal access to full employment and decent work
• Review Theme: The elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against the girl child
• Emerging Issue: Gender equality and sustainable development

Panel 1 Track- Key policy initiatives and capacity-building on gender mainstreaming: focus on science and technology

Moderator: Ms. María Luz Melon, Vice-Chair of the Commission (Argentina)

Panelist:

Ms. Sesae Mpuchane, Professor, University of Botswana, Botswana(paper)

Ms. Hagit Messer, President, Open University, Israel(paper)

Ms. Londa Schiebinger, Professor, Stanford University, USA

Mr. Bunker Roy, Founder and Director, Barefoot College, India(paper)

Ms. Anne Miroux, Director, Technology and Trade Logistics Division, UNCTA(paper)

If you are interested in watching day 1 high level round table web live cast, watch now!

Tags: 24notion, CSW, economy, education, entrepreneurship, gender equality, Gender Initiative, Girls, girls in tech, ivo, Ivo Lukas, jobs, justice, Leadership, NGO, Science, technology, training, UN, united nations, UNwomen, Women in Education
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In my last post, I posed a question concerning the future of our girls: How do we create a guaranteed platform and successfully develop their genius? Ironically, since that posting two weeks ago, the first part of the question was answered for me. The Girls in Tech Athens Chapter has drawn the attention of Cisco’s Gender Initiative program—a positive and proven technology platform for young women and girls.

Though the program starts with the bare minimal Windows application skills, given the sluggish evolution of technology in many Greek schools (even schools with international students), this is a magnificent opportunity to track the progress of young women in this area.

My current employer, the International School of Athens, has volunteered the physical platform for GIT and Cisco to introduce the Gender Initiative program. This opportunity could provide a critical measuring tool for GIT; in that, GIT will be able to directly monitor how many women have entered this program and via Facebook or other social media we may be able to directly track the progress of the participants over the years. This metric would add value to Girls in Tech and its contribution to enhancing technology-based opportunities for the global female population.

Additionally, given Cisco’s current market position, this collaborative effort may provide young women with an incentive to look towards technology careers as their bread and butter.

For me, becoming trained as a Cisco Gender Initiative facilitator and heading up GIT Athens are two large feats, but they are literally, two large feet planted for the advancement of women in technology!

Tags: Athens, Cisco, Gender Initiative, GIT, International School of Athens, ISA
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