Despite the fact that gender parity is crucial to achieving all SDGs, progress is still unacceptable. The future of humanity demands that we immediately address the numerous obstacles preventing women and girls from realizing their full potential. Everywhere, crises continue to disproportionately impact women and girls. Generational gains in women’s rights have been reversed by violent conflict, displacement, the growing climate emergency, the effects of the global pandemic, and vocal anti-feminist movements. According to UN Women’s Gender Snapshot 2022, Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 is off track, which reflects and impacts the progress of all SDGs. Gender equality may not be fully realized for nearly 300 years if nothing is done about it. We are aiming for a date that is much closer: The year 2030, when all SDGs will have been accomplished.
Gender parity is strongly correlated with stability, resilience, poverty reduction, growth, and social cohesion. Women and girls, in all of their diversity, are the key to solving our common problems when they reach their full potential. We do not need to fix women to achieve this goal; rather, we need to change the social norms that are regressive and limiting women’s full and meaningful participation, as well as the systems and structures that are currently preventing progress. To overcome these primary obstacles, it will require collective political will, commitment from the public and private sectors, accelerated action in strategic areas, including innovative tools and special measures, improved laws, financing, and data. Women and girls must be equally equipped and meaningfully represented in all areas of life and decision-making if we are to make the progress we want to see.
This year, at the Commission on the Status of Women in New York, discussions are taking place regarding solutions that use technology and innovation to address the imbalances that exist at the moment and speed up progress. Bridging the gender digital divide as a key enabler of women’s education, leadership, and economic empowerment are among these. Other examples include putting girls and women at the center of innovation. Digital literacy and inclusion are crucial to the well-being and success of women and girls, despite the fact that they are not a complete solution on their own. They open up new opportunities for learning, earning, and leading because they are powerful amplifiers for their voice and leadership.
However, a significant access gap remains: There are still three billion people without internet access, the majority of whom are girls and women. Technology must not lead to inequality, violence, or abuse in the future. The power of collective digital action and civil society to drive change and increase accountability for rights violations was demonstrated by movements like #MeToo and digital activism.
Women and girls must be included in the design, development, and implementation of new technologies, including artificial intelligence, in order to ensure that they are impartial, secure, inclusive, and accessible from the beginning.
In an increasingly digital world, we must make bold new investments in digital, science, and technology education for girls and women to ensure their full eligibility for 21st-century jobs and leadership roles. Additionally, we must reorganize the tech and innovation industries to ensure the continued employment and leadership of women, who currently hold only one in three positions.
We have the power to shape a future in which women’s rights and prosperity are truly and completely advanced. a future in which girls and women have equal chances to use, lead, access, and design technology in a safe and meaningful way. one that guarantees that the foundation of COVID-19 recovery efforts is the creation of digital, inclusive economies. In addition, in areas where technology contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by altering social norms, amplifying women’s voices, retaliating against online harassment, preventing the perpetuation of algorithmic biases, and distributing the advantages of digitalization equally across the globe.
