Women in technology fields

Women and girls represent a minority among volunteers in STEM fields, which also reflects the situation in societies overall. Research on volunteer computing estimates that than less than 10 per cent of volunteers in this field are women. The same study also suggests that these differences in participation are due to the lack of available information and weak capacity to engage wide networks of women to promote these types of opportunities among other women and girls.

Initiatives to increase the participation of women and girls, and men and boys, in areas where they are traditionally underrepresented have the potential to greatly contribute to dismantling gender stereotypes and preconceived ideas about what women and men can do.

Changing the world, one app at a time

Technovation Girls Mexico is the national chapter of a worldwide initiative to teach girls aged 10–18 years to use technology to solve real-world problems. Through this programme, a group of women mentors volunteer to teach girls on app development.

The programme has run in Mexico since 2013 and has involved 1,200 girls to date. Local chapters of Technovation Girls Mexico are present in some of Mexico’s most important cities, such as Guadalajara, Mexico City and Querétaro. The initiative has the support of public and private partners from the education, technology and recruitment sectors.

In 2016, Lilia Arceli Lobato Martínez was the first Mexican to win the first-place cash prize to further develop her app that promotes volunteerism in Mexico.

Seeking a lasting impact

The global network of Technovation national teams aims to inspire and empower girls from all over the world in becoming familiar and comfortable with using technology. According to their reports, 58 per cent of the girls that participate in the programmes pursue further training in computer science after this first experience with technology and other likeminded girls. This global initiative meets annually at the Technovation World Summit, bringing together girls from all over the world for a few days.

The global network has seen more than 23,000 girls empowered to use technology to make real-world changes since 2010, with the initiative featured in the book Wonder Girls: Changing Our World and the documentary CodeGirl.