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"Wanted: Cyberellas for Europe"
Engendering the Knowledge Society: Measuring Women's Participation
EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding attended the Global Meeting of the Women's Forum for Economy and Society in Deauville (France). She Called for more women with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills (so-called 'Cyberellas') as a powerful tool to address the shortage of 300,000 ICT qualified staff expected in the EU by 2010.
..."We will simply need more 'Cyberellas' to have a happy end to Europe's problems of an ageing workforce, falling birth rates and skills shortages. Instead of solving these problems with a magic wand – as the classical 'Cinderella' probably would have done – a 'Cyberella' will use her science or engineering degree to get an attractive job in the ICT sector and make her way to a decision-making position. A 'Cyberella' will be able to contribute to the design and production of tomorrow's technologies and communication networks. She will thereby be able to have a strong impact on shaping Europe's economic and societal future."
The book Cinderella or Cyberella? Empowering Women in the Knowledge Economy is available at Kumarian Books and Amazon.
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Women in the Information Society, Phase One of the project demonstrated that contrary to what might be expected, female access to the Internet use does not match national rates of Internet penetration in either developed or developing countries. A range of socioeconomic and political factors affect and frame the gender divide, including social and cultural barriers to technology use; education and skill levels; employment and income trends; media and content; privacy and security and location/mode of access.
Engendering the Knowledge Society: Measuring Women's Participation is the followup 2007 report written by Sophia Huyer and Nancy Hafkin to address options and strategies for addressing the issues that inhibit women's contributions in the knowledge society. The report stresses that effective national strategies can only be developed on the basis of good data: data that provide the best and most useful information on gendered opportunities and challenges, data that will allow the best decisions to be made. The report provides a conceptual framework on Gender Equality in the Knowledge Society and a suggested set of indexes to achieve these goals.
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