Iran Faculty of Applied Science of Post and Telecommunication, International Girls in ICT Day

4/24/2018

Asia & pacific, Iran, ICT Faculty, Tehran, Tehran Province, Iran

International Girls in ICT Day is celebrated every year on the fourth Thursday of April and will next be observed on 26 April 2018. To date, over 300,000 girls and young women have taken part in more than 9,000 celebrations of International Girls in ICT Day in 166 countries worldwide.

As an ITU Academia member, Iran Faculty of post and telecommunication (ICT Faculty) with considering its vision to be a regional hub center for ICT technical training and in order to fulfill its commitment to train specialists in ICT technical fields, celebrates “International Girls in ICT Day”. The main approach of the ceremony is empowering girls and young women through enhancing their technical and professional skills and to raise awareness about gender gaps in the information and communications technology industry and market as well as the necessity of decreasing heterogeneous and unfair distribution of occupations and professional positions for them in ICT organizations.

Existing data shows that women are 14 percent less likely than men to own a mobile phone and that 25 percent fewer women and girls are online compared to men and boys. Research also indicates that enabling internet access for 150 million women would contribute an estimated USD 13-18 billion to the annual GDP of 144 developing countries. Even doubling the pace of women becoming frequent users of digital technologies—which would contribute to gender equality in the workplace by 2040 in developed countries and by 2060 in developing countries—is not good enough.

Women are at risk of losing out on tomorrow’s best ICT job opportunities, whether in the public or private sectors, or as an employee or entrepreneur. Current and emerging technology is fundamentally altering the job market, the type of jobs that will exist in the future and the skills that will be required for those jobs and promoting women to use their capabilities better than before in this situation should be a top priority. 

To tackle these challenges, policy tools and focused programs are needed to shift priorities and investments, and divert them to capacity building for effectively use of women skills.

Iran ICT Faculty, in line with international Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the United Nations approaches (We Learn Platform, UN Women, etc.) celebrates International Girls in ICT Day aiming:

• To create an environment that empowers and encourages girls and young women to consider careers in the growing field of ICTs.
•  Enabling both girls and technology companies to reap the benefits of greater female participation in the ICT sector.
• To promote girls and young women to use their capabilities better than before
• To prevent unfair distribution of occupations and professional positions for women.