BDT Director Doreen Bogdan-Martin gave welcoming remarks for the EQUALS in Tech Awards ceremony of 2020.
The EQUALS in Tech Awards is the flagship event of the EQUALS partnership, a multi-stakeholder initiative created to promote awareness, build political commitment, leverage knowledge, efforts, and resources to achieve digital gender equality at both the global and national levels.
This year, the seventh annual EQUALS in Tech Awards celebrated initiatives that are closing the gender digital divide, including initiatives that are: connecting every woman to online services; training every girl to use software; and empowering every woman-owned tech startup to thrive.
Ms Bogdan-Martin noted that even before the pandemic, we knew that women and girls did not have equal access to the internet, digital skills training, or opportunities for jobs and leadership in the tech sector. However, this problem has now been exacerbated. Women and girls are now simply being left out – left out of online learning, remote working, telehealth, and the many other ways that the digital world is serving to keep the world connected.
She emphasized the necessity of bridging the digital divide, and expressed hope for achieving this goal, given the amazing work done by EQUALS in Tech award nominees, finalists and winner of past and present, at both the grassroots and global level.
''Our future is shaping up to be increasingly digital, and women must have a role in shaping that future so that it represents and serves all of humanity'', underscored Ms Bogdan-Martin.
She thanked all ''nominees, finalists and winners for showing the way forward to a bright digital future for everyone" and said “your efforts give us hope that we will emerge from this pandemic with more digital equality than ever before.''
