The UN Secretary General issues a dire warning to world leaders: equality between women and men in the world is an increasingly distant goal. António Guterres has said that “women’s rights are being mistreated, threatened and violated around the world” and that “the gains made over decades are fading before our eyes.”
“Gender equality is getting further and further away. On the current path, UN Women places it 300 years away,” said Guterres.
Closing the great gender gap in innovation and technology
Closing the great gender gap in innovation and technology is the focus of the 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, which is being held at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
“Digital technologies have the potential to accelerate progress towards the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) by enabling the creation of new opportunities for education, health, agriculture and entrepreneurship, among others,” said Pauline Tallen, Nigerian Minister of Women’s Affairs.
“If we don’t have data on women and if the algorithms are mostly designed by men, the risk is that new technologies will make our world even more unequal,” warned Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Prime Minister of Iceland.
For two weeks, participants from around the world will examine how gender equality can be achieved in the digital age and how to promote greater inclusion of women in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.