Women's Participation in Digital Public Life: From Commitments to Systems that Deliver (CSW70 Side Event) Side Events Date: 13 March 2026 Language: English Transcript: https://transcripts.un.org/en/asset/k1y/k1y4a9iwnl Transcripts available through this tool are created by using automatic speech recognition and are not official records nor official documents of the United Nations. Official records and official documents are available on the Official Document System of the United Nations. --- ITU · Associate Gender Affairs Officer · Bodhaba [0:02]: So again, good afternoon everyone. My name is Bodhaba. I'm Associate Gender Affairs Officer at the International Telecommunication Union. And it's my pleasure to welcome you to this side event on women participation in Digital Public Life from Commitment to Systems that Deliver. This session is organized under the Equals Global Partnership for Gender Equality in the Digital Age, which is a multi stakeholder initiative bringing together government, international organizations, the private sector, the academia, civil society, to close the gender digital divide and advance women's leadership and participation in technology. So thank you everyone for joining us here at unhq. And also thank you to all those that are following the discussion live on UN Web tv. We're very excited to be joined today by an excellent group of speakers and of partners who will share perspectives from all different kind of stakeholders. The format of the session will begin with some opening remarks and then keynote intervention before moving into a discussion structured around three key dimensions of women participation in the digital age aligned with the EQUALS work stream. The first one is safe and inclusive digital spaces. Second one is emerging technologies for inclusion. And the third one is digital skills and leadership pathways. We will then open the discussion to participants in the room before concluding with a sort of reality interruption, bringing us perspective from the field on how these issues are experienced in practice. So to formally open the discussion and share more about EQUALS Partnership and its renewed vision, it is now my pleasure to invite Mrs. Ursula Weinhoven, Director and IT Representative to the United Nations. Ursula, the floor is yours. ITU · Director; ITU Representative to the UN · Ursula Weinhoven [2:12]: Thank you so much, Maud, for that wonderful introduction. Can you hear me? I think the button is pressed. Is there someone in the tech booth? It's red. It's red. Yeah. Needs to go green. Yep, it's green. Now you can hear me. Can you hear me now? Okay, lovely. Okay, let's start that again. Thank you so much, Maude. It's such a pleasure to be here with you all. And what an incredible turnout. Excellency, Commissioner, panelists, participants, good afternoon. And. And we're really excited about this session under the framework of the Equals Global Partnership for Gender Equality in the Digital age. This year's CSW 70 review theme focuses, as you know, on women's participation and leadership in public life. But today, participation in public life increasingly is happening online. As we know, public debate, civic engagement, access to services, and even decision making processes are now shaped by digital platforms, digital public services, and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence. This raises an important question. Who gets to participate in this digital public life? And who is left out? Because when participation shifts online, the digital divide becomes a participation divide. And unfortunately, the gender gap remains very real. The latest data shows that 77% of men use the Internet, compared with 71% of women. This means that around 28 million fewer women than men are online worldwide today. When the Equals Partnership was created nearly 10 years ago, the goal was clear. To help close the gender digital divide by 2030. Supporting the Sustainable Development Goal 5 by empowering women through information and communication technologies. From the beginning, that partnership recognized that access alone would not be enough. It focused therefore on three Access, skills and leadership. Because women must not only be connected, they must have meaningful connectivity, affordable access. The digital skills to use use technology confidently. And the opportunity to participate and lead in the digital economy. And yet today, almost a decade later, we must acknowledge that the gap has not closed. In fact, we even have new gaps. Progress has been made though, but it's just not fast enough. And that's why this partnership, the Equals Partnership, has entered a new phase. Last year, partners launched equals 2.2.0, renewing the partnership with the new ambition, Achieving Gender Equality in technology by 2035. Empowering 100 million women and girls to become active contributors to the digital economy. Founded by itu, UN Women, the International Trade center and UN University and gsma, Equals brings together governments, international organizations, the private sector, civil society and academia. Because closing the digital gender divide cannot be done by one actor alone. Equals 2.0 now works through three interconnected work streams. Emerging tech for inclusion, Ensuring technologies such as AI are designed in ways that reduce bias and expand opportunity. Digital skills and leadership pathways. Supporting women and girls to build the skills and leadership that's needed to shape the digital future. And finally, safe and inclusive digital spaces. Because participation is impossible if digital environments are unsafe. Together, these efforts reflect a simple but powerful idea. Women and girls must not only access technology, they must be able to shape it, govern it and lead within it. Closing the gender digital divide will require all of us working together. And that is why we invite you to join the Equals Partnership and collaborate with us. Thank you so much. And back to you, Maud. ITU · Associate Gender Affairs Officer · Bodhaba [6:23]: Thank you very much, Ursula. It's now my pleasure to invite Mrs. Yayatma Vikramanayeke, Senior Policy Advisor at UN Women, to deliver further opening remarks. Yatma, the floor is yours. UN Women · Senior Policy Advisor · Yayatma Vikramanayeke [6:38]: Colleagues, I hope you can hear me. Excellencies, Commissioner, colleagues, welcome to this event. UN Women is very proud to have been a co founder of the Equals Partnership together with itu. As Ursula said a decade ago, so much progress has been made since then, but there is still so much work to do. So let me begin by reaffirming UN Women's strong commitment to the Equas partnership, particularly as we enter this renewed phase of Equas 2.0. As Urban had mentioned, at a time when digital systems are rapidly reshaping economies, governance and public discourse, partnerships like equals are essential to ensuring that gender equality is not an afterthought of digital transformation, but rather is one of its guiding principles. This commitment is deeply grounded in the global mandates that guides UN Women's ITUs and all of our partners work the Beijing Declaration, its 30th anniversary last year, the Global Digital Compact, the recently adopted World Summit on the Information Society this is +20 outcome continue to emphasize that gender equality must be at the core of digital development. These global commitments align closely with the renewed vision of Equas 2.0. This partnership's three work streams reflect exactly the same systemic approaches that we need today. The first work stream, Building Safe and Inclusive Digital Spaces that Enable Participation, is directly connected to CSW 70's review theme, which focuses on women's full and effective participation and decision making in public life, which is the topic. We will go deeper into today's session. Today, as Ursula said, participation in public life is increasingly mediated by digital systems. The public square is no longer only physical, it is increasingly digital. It is the online platforms where debates unfold, the digital services through which people access rights and opportunities, whether it is education, whether it is health, and increasingly the algorithmic systems that shape whose voices are amplified and whose are marginalized. These systems influence who is visible, who is heard, who is able to participate meaningfully and who is not. Yet these same digital environments are also becoming spaces where violence and exclusion are expanding. Women in political and public life, including women human rights defenders, activists, journalists, lawmakers and athletes and entertainers, are facing increasing levels of violence both online and offline. A recent Global survey by UN Women further shows that 70% of women human rights defenders, activists, journalists, and media workers have experienced online violence in the course of their work, and that for 41% of them, this translated into attacks, abuse, harassment offline. So the violence in the online sphere is deeply linked to violence in the offline sphere as well. The scale of abuse extends beyond politics and into areas like sport and entertainment as well. During the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, analysis shows that nearly nine out of 10 abusive messages on social media targeted women athletes, highlighting the gendered nature of online hostility even in global sporting arenas. Together, these numbers and experiences reveal a troubling pattern. Digital violence is not only silencing women online, it's actually actively undermining their safety, credibility and leadership in public life. When women withdraw from digital spaces because they feel unsafe or because they feel unheard, the consequences then extend beyond their individual scape. Entire perspectives, expertise and leadership are pushed out of the conversations and decisions that shape our societies. This is why violence against women and girls in digital spaces must be understood not simply as a technology issue, but as a systems issue. A systemic barrier to participation and a systemic barrier to democracy itself. We need systems that deliver. And this is precisely why multi stakeholder partnerships like equals become indispensable. No single government institution or company can achieve these challenges alone, can achieve the results or the solutions for these challenges alone. Ensuring inclusive digital transformation requires collaboration across multis stakeholder actors such as the ones gathered here today. Through equals 2.0 we have an opportunity to strengthen that collaboration and move from commitments to coordinated systems level action. As we reflect during CSW 70 on women's participation and leadership in public life, our collective responsibility is clear. If the future of public life is digital, then women must not only be present in these spaces, they must be actively shaping the systems that govern them. And that is the responsibility we must meet together. So allow me to join Ursula in welcoming all of you to join and support the equals partnership and work together with us. Thank you. ITU · Associate Gender Affairs Officer · Bodhaba [12:26]: Thank you very much, Ayatma for this inspiring word. We now move to a keynote perspective from a government that has been actively supporting efforts to to strengthen women and girls participation and leadership in the digital sector. And I'm pleased to welcome His Excellency Simon Thomas, Ambassador of the United Kingdom to the UN General Assembly. Ambassador, the floor is yours. United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland · Ambassador to the GA · Simon Thomas [12:55]: Can you hear me? Good, excellent look, thank you so much, Maud. Thanks to both of you as well, for, for setting the context so well, as I think you've put more eloquently than I would have done. You know, ensuring that women and girls can participate in can shape and lead the technologies that are transforming our world is absolutely central to our shared digital future. I've been asked to say a few words about the UK and our approach and just to say at the start, in the UK we've made this a priority because as I mean, this audience knows better than anyone else when women and girls are excluded from the digital sector, the entire world loses out on talent, on innovation and on economic growth. And it's not just the right thing to do, it's absolutely essential for building resilient, inclusive digital societies that we all want to build. So I'm happy to share with you a few of the things that we are doing in the uk, and then I'll be fascinated to hear some of the contributions from others. So, first, we're taking concrete steps to strengthen women's and girls participation in the digital economy. Both of you talked about that. And the UK government's Digital Strategy and Digital Skills Framework are expanding access to high quality training with targeted outreach to women and girls. And that's things like digital boot camps and retraining programmes, fully funded by the UK's Department of Education, designed in partnership with both academic institutions and industry. And we're opening pathways into careers, into AI, into cybersecurity, data science and software engineering, fields where women have historically, as we know, been underrepresented. We're also investing early in the pipeline. So the UK's STEM education policies, including the National Computing Curriculum and the STEM Ambassadors program, reach over 100,000 girls each year in the UK and help them build confidence and skills from a young age. And these are the kinds of initiatives that ensure that girls see themselves not just as users of technology, but as future creators, as innovators and leaders. And that's the second thing which is supporting women's leadership in technology is really important too. So through the Women in Innovation program, led by Innovate uk, we're providing grants, mentoring, bespoke business support to women founders across the tech sector. And since its launch 10 years ago, the program has invested about 11 million pounds, that's about $14 million in 200 women innovators driving new ideas in AI and health tech, in green tech and beyond, and built a vibrant network of 11,000 business, women, business leaders. But as others have touched on, participation also needs to be safe. And I think many of you this week have been involved in different discussions on the way that technology facilitated gender based violence continues to silence women and girls and to push them out of digital spaces. Our own Online Safety act in the UK represents one of the most comprehensive regulatory frameworks to try to address online harms. It places clear legal duties on platforms to assess and to mitigate risks to women and girls, including misogynistic abuse, cyber stalking and the non consensual sharing of intimate images. It strengthens law enforcement's ability to act against perpetrators and requires the platforms themselves to improve transparency, reporting mechanisms and user protections. Alongside this, the UK's violence against women and Girls strategy recognises online abuse as a core component of modern gender based violence and funds specialist organisations that support survivors, improve digital safety education and develop tools to prevent and respond to online harms. We're also Investing in research and innovation to understand better how emerging technologies, from generative AI to deepfakes, are being weaponized against women and girls. And to ensure that our policy and regulatory responses evolve as quickly as the threats, which is a huge challenge. On the international front, we are working with partners to strengthen global norms and practice to support to tackle tfgbv. And I hope some of you were able earlier this week to, to attend an event that we hosted along with UN Women, UNODC and the Global Partnership for Action on Gender Based Harassment and Abuse, which launched a global consultation on a model national framework for adult non consensual intimate image abuse. It was a huge line out of the corridor. I know some of you wanted to participate but couldn't get in. So that's one thing. But also through our women and girls strategy, we're funding programs that help women and girls access safe digital spaces, build digital resilience and receive support when they do experience online abuse, as we've heard they too often do. And of course, we work closely with civil society and digital rights organisations to expand survivor centered approaches and to ensure that online safety is embedded in digital inclusion efforts. Look, we could speak for a long time on this. I've just given you a very quick rundown of some of the things that we're doing, but, you know, we're all facing these challenges together. These, you know, all of the space is moving very quickly and we're all learning from each other. So we're really pleased to be able to not only participate today, but also proud to support partnerships exactly like equals that are contributing to this overall effort. So thanks so much. Cheers. ITU · Associate Gender Affairs Officer · Bodhaba [18:49]: Thank you very much. Your Excellency. Thank you for your support and also for this reflection. It's really great to know that the UK is working on all of the aspects that shape women's ability to participate in the digital sector. You talked about capacity building, leadership, safety, and great to know that you're doing this effort at the national and international level. So now we will move into the main discussion where we will explore three dimensions of women's participation in the digital age. The idea is to look at the different factors that shape women's ability to participate, lead and influence digital public life. So, as we said before, from safety in online spaces to who designs emerging technologies and how do digital skills translate into leadership opportunity? So we will begin with the question of safety in digital spaces. As we have been saying, more and more public participation moves online and that's why safe digital environments become a prerequisite for participation and Leadership. And this is why safe and inclusive digital spaces is one of the core work stream of Equals Partnership. So to start this discussion, I'm pleased to invite Dr. Anna Cuddy, Australia's Sex Discrimination Commissioner. Commissioner Cuddy, as more public participation moves online, how should governments and legal system respond to technology facilitated gender based violence to ensure that women can participate safely and without fear? Australia · Sex Discrimination Commissioner · Anna Cuddy [20:37]: Thank you very much for the invitation to participate in this panel. And I'd like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of this land, the Lenape people, Native American people, and pay my respects to their elders and for the safety and the care that they show to this land. Land. It is a great pleasure to be able to talk about online safety and how important it is for all of us, for women and girls and for gender diverse people particularly. And we know that as more public participation shifts online that we need to recognise that digital spaces aren't neutral, they shape whose voices are heard, whose experiences are recognised and whose safety is protected or undermined. Globally, we've seen the rapid rise of technology facilitated gender based violence as we've just been hearing from the ambassador. And these harms affect women's safety and girls safety, their well being and their economic and political participation. One of the fastest growing forms of tech facilitated gender based violence is the non consensual creation and distribution distribution of AI generated intimate material or deep fakes. This abuse overwhelmingly targets women and gender diverse people and is designed to humiliate, intimidate and silence. So governments and legal systems have a responsibility to reshape the digital environment so that it supports participation rather than eroding it. So many of you will have heard about Australia's ESAFE T Commission and Commissioner who is a global leader in this work. It is the world's first online safety regulator and eSafety focuses on safeguarding people at risk of online harms and creating safer, more positive online experiences. And a crucial part of this approach is a preventative approach, the concept of safety by design. Safety by design encourages technology companies to alter their design ethos from profit at all costs, to instead embed user protections from early design phases onwards and to be responsible and accountable for their safety. So that safety by design principle shifts the burden of safety away from the individual user and places that responsibility where it belongs, on the companies that build and profit from these systems. Access to technology benefits women and girls as well as other vulnerable minority groups such as young people, culturally racially marginalised communities and LGBQTI communities. For many women, having an online presence is a necessity for Connectivity for community and economic empowerment. With so much of our lives lived online, it's no longer realistic to frame violence that happens online as not real, or to suggest that women and girls just log off. But without equal access to safe, accessible and affordable technologies. Tech facilitated gender based violence can deepen the gender digital divide. It can prevent women and girls from accessing education, from health information, social services and political spaces from enjoying their human rights fully and freely. So that's why strong regulatory mechanisms matter. So Australia's Online Safety ACT empowers the eSafety commissioner to compel platforms to remove harmful material, often within 24 hours, and impose consequences when those platforms don't do that. That approach reduces the burden on individuals who shouldn't be expected to fight technologically sophisticated abuse on their own. There is also an individual complaints line for the eSafety Commission. They also run online self defence training so that people know what measures they can take and what approaches to take when they're being attacked online. Ultimately, equality in digital public life relies on systems that centre lived experience, that respond quickly to harm, and that recognise safety as a prerequisite for participation. So those principles, particularly the safety by design, must shape the digital spaces that increasingly shape public life. So by grounding our efforts in human rights, ensuring accountability across the digital ecosystem, and embedding women's leadership into the design and governance of emerging technologies, we can create digital public spaces where women are not only present, but able to participate fully, freely and without fear. Thank you. ITU · Associate Gender Affairs Officer · Bodhaba [25:42]: Thank you very much, Commissioner. Thank you, Commissioner Cody, for talking to us about the great work that Australia has been doing regarding the online regulator, the Online Safety act and all of the great activity that you're doing. I hope it's going to inspire other governments to do the same. Now I want to turn to Mr. Bart de Wolf, Deputy Permanent Representative of Belgium to the United nations, to further develop on that matter. Mr. De Wolf, how does online harms and unsafe digital environments restrict women's voice and leadership? And why should safety be treated as a foundational infrastructure for participation? Belgium · Deputy Permanent Representative · Bart de Wolf [26:34]: Thank you very much. Thank you very much for that question and for the opportunity to be able to share my government's view on that important topic here today, together with all of you. Because online harm and unsafe digital environment do indeed significantly restrict women's ability to speak up and lead. And I would just like to raise three important risks in that regard, building upon what has already been said. First, when digital systems are created without considering women's realities, they often replicate and even intensify existing inequalities I'm particularly thinking of algorithms that can embed bias, reinforce harmful stereotypes and reproduce discriminatory patterns that limit opportunities for women and girls and even expose them to additional risks. This structural bias directly impacts women's ability to participate meaningfully and safely in the public life online. Secondly, without appropriate safeguards, digital infrastructures enable the continuation of online. Gender based violence, harassment, intimidation, online hate are used systematically to silence women, pushing them out of the public debate and creating an atmosphere where expressing ideas comes with great personal risk. This harms not only individuals, but also the diversity and quality of the democratic discourse itself. And third, in the absence of corrective measures, digital platforms amplify misogyny and disinformation, particularly regarding sexual and reproductive health and rights, including abortion. These narratives undermine women's autonomy and reinforce harmful societal norms, making it even harder for women leaders and activists to engage publicly without backlash. And these harms do not affect all women equally. An intersectional approach shows that overlapping discrimination linked to age, to race, to disability, to sexual orientation or gender identity compounds the risks faced by many women, further shrinking their space for expression and leadership. So to counter all of those risks, we think that safety must be treated as a foundational element of digital infrastructure and not as an optional add on. Without safety embedded by design in algorithms, governance frameworks and platform architecture, women cannot participate on equal footing. So ensuring a human centric, right based digital governance is especially important to create environments where women can speak, organize, innovate and lead without fear. This also requires real inclusion in the tech sector. We cannot build safe digital spaces if women and girls remain absent from the design and decision making processes. Many inspiring initiatives in that regard exist already and should be supported. Belgium, for example, finances the African Girls Can Code initiative which empowers 2000 young African women to enter ICT professions and strengthen digital ecosystems by their meaningful participation. Having safe digital spaces also demands strong accountability of digital platforms. Belgium has been active in this area, initiating together with others a Human Rights Council resolution tasking the Advisory Committee to propose concrete measures against technology facilitated gender based violence in parallel to counter harmful narratives and misinformation, it is essential to protect independent journalism and media and to promote digital literacy and access to accurate information. In all those efforts shaping digital safer digital ecosystems, women, human rights defenders, gender experts and women's organizations play of course a vital role. But unfortunately they're also among the most targeted groups online. So protecting them is key to enabling broader and fearless participation. So, to sum up, online harm in our view, restrict women's voices and leadership by silencing them, shrinking their public presence, delegitimizing their leadership, and reinforcing structural inequalities. So online safety must be foundational because without it, women cannot participate, innovate or lead. Online or offline. Safety is not a luxury. It is the infrastructure that makes equal participation possible. Thank you. ITU · Associate Gender Affairs Officer · Bodhaba [31:48]: Thank you. Thank you very much, Deputy Representative. And thank you for highlighting the notion of C safety by design. Now, to bring an evidence based and more operational perspective on the floor, I would invite Kristin Ekman, a global technical lead for gender based violence in emergencies at unicef, to take the floor. So, Kristin, what does the evidence tell us about the risks technology facilitated GBV pose for women and girls and what the effective response look like in practice? UNICEF · Global Technical Lead, GBV in Emergencies · Kristin Ekman [32:26]: Thank you so much. How's the sound? Okay. All right. Thank you so much for having me. And thank you to the other speakers for the rich contributions thus far. First, I'd like to emphasize the word facilitated within that term facilitated tech, facilitated gbv. As other speakers have already mentioned, it's so important that we think about these issues. When we think about these issues, we're careful not to treat the online and digital elements of GBV as completely separate or standalone phenomena. Rather, what we're looking at is a continuum of violence that occurs online and offline, all of which is rooted in gender inequality and abuse of power. This framing is critical for how we think about both prevention efforts and supporting survivors. So what does the evidence tell us? We all know the terrible statistics of 1 in 3 women and girls globally experiencing physical or sexual violence in her lifetime. In some humanitarian contexts, that figure rises to as high as 70%. An increasing proportion of GBV cases perpetrated in person also involve tech in some way. Digital photos, harassing messages through apps, use of digital devices as a component of stalking, and more. And in parallel, purely online abuse, such as deep fake fakes, is also proliferating. Furthermore, the weaponization of digital tools is compounding the risks faced by those who are already most vulnerable to gbv, such as adolescent girls. And this we're seeing in the data as well. Figures recently released by CNN and Plan International show that 75% of girls and young women aged 13 to 24 have faced harmful experiences online. And more than one in 10 of them experience it daily or almost daily. These include image based abuse, online grooming, and online harassment from peers or strangers, just to name a few. Within our UNICEF GBV and Emergencies portfolio, we have a large and growing pillar dedicated to tech and innovations. And everything we do in this space is co created with the girls and women in the programs we serve in that space spirit, I thought I would share a few highlights from what they've told us. One GBV caseworker in Iraq has noted seeing an increasing trends of sex torsion where girls get privately pressured by their male peers to share revealing photos that then go viral on social media or in other cases, the male on the other end demands money or sex from the girl in exchange for not sharing those photos. Further, one youth advocate from DRC told us, digital violence affects girls confidence. We become afraid to ask, to learn and to share our ideas. So then what happens? Because they're scared and they don't know where to get help, these girls begin making themselves invisible online using self censorship as a survival strategy. One 15 year old girl told us, I never upload any photos because I'm so scared of them being stolen. Caregivers and families also restrict girls access to Internet in an attempt to protect them. And while these protective efforts make sense given the environment and the dangers, they also have broader consequences. Namely, girls get further cut off from the potential benefits of online engagement. Their access to information, learning and civic participation all get compromised. So what can be done? What do effective scalable solutions look like? One of the most exciting initiatives we have at UNICEF is our LAHA virtual safe space for girls and women. LAHA offers the equivalent of a physical safe space we would traditionally implement in a humanitarian crisis, but through an online platform, Laha features over 160 interactive modules on health, safe and healthy relationships, digital safety and how to seek help following an experience of violence. The initial process of developing laha, which involved co creation with close to a thousand girls across the globe, further emphasized something we already knew, that true safety, especially online, isn't something we define for girls, it's something we build with them. Over the past five years, girls and women have helped us shape every element of laha, from the navigation to the safety features to the visuals, and with sincere gratitude to our partners like Zanta International and the Norway Humanitarian Innovation Program, LAHA is now available in 15 languages and has reached close to 2 million girls and women across more than 20 countries. As one 17 year old in Lebanon beautifully put it, with Laha I feel stronger and more confident and I believe we are becoming a generation that knows and and owns its own power. I'll close by saying that recent funding cuts and structural changes have resulted in programming dedicated to the needs of women and girls in humanitarian emergencies taking a devastating hit. At UNICEF, we've seen nearly a 50% reduction in the overall reach of our GBV and emergencies programming globally. And as more traditional in person response services services disappear, so do the spaces where girls and women's voices can be heard. The current circumstances make innovative lifelines like laha, like this coalition around the table, more critical than ever. And they call on us all to prioritize investment in strengthening the overall digital safety ecosystem for women and girls. Thank you, ITU · Associate Gender Affairs Officer · Bodhaba [38:07]: Thank you. Thank you very much, Christine. And thank you to all three speakers. Basically, this discussion clear lights that safe and inclusive digital spaces are essential for women's participation in digital life. And now we're going to move to our second focus, which is emerging technologies and system design. As everyone has said previously, artificial intelligence and data driven system increasingly shape how digital spaces operate. Yet women remain significantly underrepresented in the development and government of these technologies. At itu, we're working to address this gap through initiatives such as the AI Skills Accelerators for Girls, which helps young women build skills in artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies. And this also connects to the theme of this year's International Girls in ict AI for Girls Shaping the Digital Future. But to explore this perspective, I'm pleased to welcome Megan o', Neill, Director for UN and International Organization at Microsoft, to come to the floor. And Megan, my question is, if women are not in the rooms where AI systems are designed and governed, how does this shape participation and what changes when they are? Thank you. Microsoft · Director, UN & International Organizations · Megan O'Neill [39:40]: Thank you so much for the ITU for having us here today. And looking at the issue of women in digital public spaces from so many different angles. All of them are very specific and important to get everyone's different perspectives. As we have all agreed here, women are vital to the tech industry and must play a central role in advancing technology by building it, using it, and shaping the rules that govern it. So this means that we have women present as engineers, product leaders, policymakers and in standard setting bodies. This is not just being a beneficiary or an end user. Just to ground us in some numbers, one of the trends we see from our partner LinkedIn and from a recent report is this persistent drop from the top. So we see that women make up one third of the tech workforce, but they hold about 24% of STEM managerial roles and less than 12% of STEM C suite roles. AI actually gives us a chance to disrupt that pattern if we design inclusion from the start. At Microsoft, our approach to AI is grounded in trust, enabled by technology, empowered by talent. Responsible AI is where all three of these pillars come together and it's actually where inclusive inclusion becomes real. Because the people who are building the technology in governing AI are the ones who determine whether technology serves everyone or it reinforces inequalities. And this is why we need women at the table. Responsible AI is one of the few areas in an AI ecosystem where interdisciplinary expertise is not only welcomed, but it's essential. It creates a powerful opening to bring more women into the center of AI development and governance, particularly women with backgrounds in policy, social sciences, humanities, ethics and the arts. Contrary to popular belief, you do not need a computer science degree to shape how AI is built, governed and deployed. Again, responsible AI is where this becomes operational. If we want it to serve everyone, we need the people designing, testing and governing it to reflect the communities that are using it and that are affected. And this starts with women's voices. We also know that the demand for responsible, excuse me, for AI talent is accelerating. We know that right now, in terms of AI engineering skills, the numbers from LinkedIn have risen from about 23% in 2018 to almost 30 in 2025. And that the gender gap with engineering in AI has narrowed in 74 out of 75 economies. But also underreporting matters when implicit skills are counted. A lot of women in women's share of AI engineering talent, we actually are seeing that it's at about 38% and that women are contributing more than is visible or recognized. And so AI specialist roles, they are among the fastest growing in the US and globally. And governments and companies that are scaling their AI to deployment are creating entirely new categories of work, from safety to evaluation to transparency to post deployment monitoring. The global spotlight on responsible AI gives us an opportunity to clarify that we can bring more people with different backgrounds into into AI governance and development. They're needed at this formative stage while the rules are being made, and that's right now, the decisions are being made right now about safety thresholds, transparency, expectations and deployment norms. We're also seeing this principle reflected in UN led governance efforts. With the Scientific Panel on AI, for example, we were seeing that inclusion was embedded from the start. So of its 40 members, nearly 50% are women, representing a wide, wide range of disciplines, including academia, journalism and the private sector. This balance of gender and expertise was intentionally mandated to give it legitimacy and we need more of this. The same principle applies to the UN's Global Dialogue on AI Governance, where governments and companies come together to shape the future on AI. These spaces are critical for surfacing the perspectives for those that are building and deploying AI responsibly and ensuring that women's voices are present in shaping the rules and safeguards at Microsoft. We're looking forward to participating in the dialogue and we'll continue to advocate for responsible AI that's grounded in inclusion, transparency and global collaboration, which means having women's voices at the table within our own governance of AI. At Microsoft, we've benefited immensely from having some very strong women in leadership. Our first ever responsible AI officer, Natasha Crampton, built Microsoft's entire modern responsible AI program, which includes our AI standard. Her work set the governance foundation for the company and how we develop and deploy AI to help shape global transparency and safety norms through initiatives like the Hiroshima AI process at the G7. Sarah Bird, who is our lead technical architect for Microsoft's responsible AI tooling and evaluation methods. She's driven the development of fairness, robustness and safety assessments through our engineering teams. And this has demonstrated that women's technical leadership is central to making responsible AI real in practice. So, really, to sum up, responsible AI offers an opportunity now that is again happening literally in this moment. And it's evolving. So it's creating new jobs, it's creating new governance models, we're shaping new norms. So this is a moment where it's a rare opportunity to get inclusion, I would say. Right. But I'm gonna say on a better path, just since the gap is so wide. So I'll turn it back to Maud. ITU · Associate Gender Affairs Officer · Bodhaba [46:56]: Thank you, Daring. Thank you very much, Emigran, for sharing the efforts that Microsoft are doing. And we've heard and understood that who designs and governs emerging technologies such as AI matters greatly for inclusion in the digital age. Now, our third perspective focuses on digital skills and leadership pathways across its work. ITU supports programs that are aimed at increasing women's participation in digital sectors, including initiatives that supports participation in cybersecurity and digital leadership. An example is the program Women in Cyber, which aims at increasing women's participation in cyber security. And another initiative closely linked to today's discussion is Her Digital Skills, a program that was developed under the Equal Partnership. This program supports young women in building digital and entrepreneurial skills and demonstrates how partnerships can translate skill development into real opportunities. Our next speaker is closely involved in this work and I'm very pleased to welcome Daisy Washira, Field Programs and Development Manager at Women's World Wide Web. And Daisy, please tell me, why do Digital skills sometimes translate in leadership and influence and sometimes do not? W4 · Field Programs and Development Manager · Daisy Washira [48:24]: Just confirming that everyone can hear me. Thank you, Excellencies, Commissioner, partners, colleagues in the room, good afternoon. Thank you to the ITU and equals, UN Women, unicef, the UK Commission to the UN for bringing us together on such an important topic. And so when do skills become power? I would like to address this within the framework of the crucial work we do at EQUALS and specifically the Equals Global Partnership that is Her Digital skills that is designed to foster female talent in tech. Next slide. Thank you. W4 is a co founder alongside the ITU, GSMA and EY of the Her Digital Skills Initiative, a program designed to provide girls and women around the world with access to free gender transformative digital skills training, soft skills training and mentoring opportunities to promote their pursuit in tech studies and careers and their access to formal employment in tech, tech entrepreneurship and the broader economy. In designing the program, we asked ourselves precisely this question and through extensive. Next slide, please. And through extensive research and market mapping, we asked ourselves which approaches could overcome the persistent gender digital divide? How do we ensure that women and girls not only acquire crucial digital skills to boost their employability, but also the requisite technical and soft skills to amplify their agency and voices? And how do we ensure their ability to navigate digital spaces safely, to embrace career opportunities with confidence and foster their leadership? In other words, what would skills training and career support that is meaningfully gender transformative look like? This research culminated to the joint publication that is The Gender Transformative Digital Skills Framework Digital Skills Education Framework sorry the GTDSE offering both a theoretical framework and practical guidelines, a roadmap and gender transformative approaches to digital skills education and gender parity in tech and I strongly recommend this publication. Of course, digital skills can only translate into agency and power when combined with enabling conditions and opportunities such as access to digital infrastructure, affordable connectivity, safe learning spaces and adapted and relevant technical skills training and skills to safely navigate digital ecosystem and indispensable soft skills training and supportive pathways into economic, civic and political opportunities. And just to state, access to digital skills does not automatically change power dynamics. Indeed, we found that while there is a plethora of digital skills training programs and digital competency frameworks, there is an immense gap in terms of digital skills, pedagogy and content designed with and for women and girls. This research shows that. Sorry. When it comes to gender transformative digital competencies, the skills that girls and women need in daily lives for employment to amplify their urgency and voices. The existing digital competency frameworks do not adequately address the gender dimension of this topic and the normative barriers that we have. These are not just technical skills, but knowledge and skills encompassing critical thinking, rights, cyber safety and soft skills. Content and pedagogical approaches must foster Critical thinking analysis to question, challenge and dismantle biased, limiting and harmful norms. Next slide please. Thank you. HER Digital Skills was designed to offer a holistic learner pathway to foster girls and women's pursuit to tech studies and careers and their advancement in their careers. We launched this program a few years ago and it has already benefited over 400 girls and young women across five continents and counting. We are just getting started, all with consistently excellent results. Alongside digital skills training, other key components are soft skills development and an innovative mentoring program that connects girls and women who seek to establish or advance their careers with experienced professionals in the tech sector. The training also systematically includes cyber safety and cyber security training. In our current era, as have been the discussions this week and also last week at the mwc, we have tech and AI evolving at unrelenting speed and skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, teamwork and collaboration, leadership, adaptability and cultivating self confidence are essential for women and girls navigating the tech space. Such skills can be decisive in determining outcomes and girls and women can develop them through HER Digital Skills soft skills training program and mentoring programs that we have and I can personally attest to to the importance of such opportunities. I am an alumni of the HER Digital Skills Program and it has, without exaggeration, been a transformative experience for me personally and professionally and for that I'm really grateful. It is also essential to support the transition from skills to opportunity and again the program focuses on this through HER Digital Skill Skills workshops that enable participants to develop specific competencies, explore particular domains within the digital field, and meet with industry leaders and relatable role models. Career guidance webinars also help participants to navigate the job market and these elements help bridge the critical gaps between skills training, employment opportunities and equal participation in the digital economy. Next slide please. Of course it's important to ensure broader enabling ecosystems that support gender inclusion in the technology sector and the right policies and legislation must be in place. And as my colleague Megan here just grounded our discussion on the role of WITH statistics in the corporate industry and what we are seeing in the industry the industry, the corporates have a critical role to play, including workplace policies that promote inclusive cultures, leadership pathways for women in these organizations, recruitment and promotion practices that value diversity, and industry partnerships that create real opportunities for women to advance their careers in technology. And in this regard and building from GDTDSE framework equals in partnership with GSMA, EY and W4, we've recently launched the Gender Inclusivity Index, which is a tool to help companies and organizations assess the state of gender transformation in their internal and external programs, policies and initiatives. I've just touched on a few factors that determine whether skills become power or not. And again, I strongly recommend the Gender Transformative Digital Skills Education Framework and the Gender Inclusivity publications as highly valuable resources. In sum. Next slide, please. In sum, with the right approaches, digital skills can catalyze girls and women's empowerment. But we urgently need to step up our efforts to ensure that girls and women become equal participants in shaping the digital future. And the two publications are available online. We have the QR codes and also on the Equals in Tech website and the GSMA website. Thank you so much. Back to you, Maud. Thank you. Speaker 17 [57:14]: Thank you very much, Daisy. As we were developing digital skills, it's not only about access to technology, but about creating pathways for women to participate, lead and shape the digital economy. We're now going to move to the interactive part of the discussion, but to begin I would like to invite Tania Gomezo, advocacy AI Advisor at Soar Optimistic International, to share a short intervention. ITU · Associate Gender Affairs Officer · Bodhaba [57:40]: And after that we will open the floor for questions and reflections for our participants in the room. Tania, you can go ahead. Soroptimist International · Advocacy AI Advisor · Tania Gomezo [57:48]: Thank you, mot. And thank you Ursula and all the partners and founding members of the Equal Coalition Excellencies, Commissioner, colleagues. MoT has already presented me. I would like to tell you that Soroptimist International we are a global network of 60,000 members in over 120 countries working daily to empower all women and girls through education, leadership and enabling environments. CSW 70 give us the possibility to enable all women and girls to reach their full potential. So when we see coalitions like equals, we can only be very grateful because there are so many synergies in our work and mainly the effective participation of all women and girls in public life. In our current digital era, digital systems increasingly shape who can speak, lead and decide. So we must ask, are these systems designed to include all women and girls? No, they are not. For us, AI ethics are not optional is the cornerstone to making that participation real. We follow three design, develop and deploy AI. With women's rights at the center at the heart, let's talk about design. Technology is not neutral and AI systems encode the values and blind spots of those who build them. The UNESCO recommendation on the ethics of artificial intelligence make this point non negotiable. Human dignity and gender equality must guide all stages of the AI system life cycle. Yet women and girls remain underrepresented in AI design. The related data engineering or data modeling are leading to systemic gaps. We do support programs at grassroots level at the reality of things where young girls can learn to code from age 7 to be part of of the design flow in an ethical way to make sure they are the architects of the future and not merely users. Then when we talk about develop development must be based on disaggregated data. The UN Global Digital Compact calls for safe, secure and trustworthy digital public infrastructure and human rights based approach to digital governance. The OECD AI principles endorsed by ITU member States require AI actors to respect human rights including non discrimination and gender equality throughout the AI system life cycle. An ITU AI for Good Global Summit platform has spotlighted how AI can amplify bias against women and girls unless development includes testing and impact assessments. So Optimist International works on reporting and supporting assessments following UN mechanisms and special procedures including participating in open consultations. Furthermore, we create AI workshops, AI Roundtables and digital literacy programs with multi stakeholder participation. Even last November we hosted the AI Roundtable at the Commonwealth Office in London with many stakeholders present with six topics. Now the three phases. The last phase deployed depends on design and development because even well design technological tools can harm if deployed carelessly. So many women and girls in leadership face AI enabled gender based violence and disinformation that drives them away from public life. The Pact of the Future adopted at the 2024 summit of the Future commits to addressing the risks of emerging technologies while harnessing their potential for sustainable development and human well being. ITU Leadership in WIS and AI Governance forums show deployment can be made accountable through transparency, redress and human oversight. Through design developed and deployed, we can build systems to enable and secure women's and girls participations. At Zooroptimis International we support the unique value of equals 2.0 mot give me one minute because emerging tech for inclusion, one of your cornerstones is related to our global network that supports ethical testing of AI through real world women leadership experiences Safe digital spaces. Another equals 2.0 pillar is related to our mission to advance women and girls throughout Orange the world. Campaigns that focus on prevention, support local digital literacy initiative and advocate for for safety by design platforms which we have heard as a red thread on this conversation. Third pillar Skills and Leadership Pathways. We organize leadership academies where AI literacy for women leaders is central. Now to close, I would like to say that when we align AI ethics with UN instruments such as the Global Digital Compact, the new launched independent International Scientific Panel on AI Pact for the Future and UNESCO recommendations and we all work collaboratively with Member States, the private sector and civil society. We can create public spaces also digital public spaces where all women and girls can lead with confidence. To close. I would like to recall one phrase. We all are the AI generation. And to that I would like to add we all decide which type I thank you Mot. Thank you. ITU · Associate Gender Affairs Officer · Bodhaba [1:05:45]: Thank you very much Tamia for this inspiring work. So now we are actually going to change a little bit the program for the interest of time. And I want to give the floor to Ikmatzun Jenemesani, founder of Paribus Space in Ghana, which is also one of the ITU 160 gender champions. So she was one of the 10 young women leaders selected to participate at the AI for Good Summit in Geneva last year. We when she engaged in global digital policy discussion and participated in several sessions. Through your work, Ikmat, you have directly reached thousands of women and girls through training in digital skills, entrepreneurship and cybersecurity. So Ikmat, can you tell us a little bit about the way digital systems skills, initiatives and leadership opportunities intersect in the context? Thank you. Paribus Space · Founder · Ikmatzun Jenemesani [1:06:48]: Please are you able to hear me? Yeah. So for the purpose of today's discussion, I will describe myself as a Gen Z wannabe trying to reclaim technology back to the communities. Because I think we have a foundational misunderstanding in this space about where technology originated from. We speak about it as though it originated from the Silicon Valley and then extended outward to communities like the ones I work in. But technology has always been community first. The problem is that the power that comes with it has gone far beyond where it belongs. And the work we do through Pahable Space in Ghana is really about closing that distance. Before I get into that, I want to sit with a question in this space and I think this conversation has really not confronted it yet. When we say women's participation in digital public life, which women are we referring to and which women are we really designing for? Because the women and girls I work with are mostly women in the informal sector in Northern Ghana. Women selling shea butter and groundnuts in open air markets. Girls in community schools who have never had a qualified ICT teacher. Young women trying to rebuild their futures in regions where the infrastructure for digital participation barely exists. Women who husbands check their phones every night to see who they have been talking to, what they have been reading and which WhatsApp groups they have joined. Women and girls who are not just excluded from digital spaces. They are being actively monitored and controlled within them. We had a woman in one of our digital skills program who was one of the best participants we had ever worked with and then she stopped coming. We followed up like the way we usually do. And her husband answered. He told us he could no longer allow her to use a smartphone because in his understanding, and this is a genuinely mispred understanding view, in our communities, a woman on social media is there for one reason only, and that reason is to attract male attention. She's not called ambitious, she's not called entrepreneurial. She is called a troublemaker, sometimes a prostitute. She is a woman who has forgotten her place. These are not extremes, insults reserved for unusual situations. These are the routine social consequences that women in communities like where I come from navigate every single time they pick up their phone in public. And here is what makes this story particularly difficult to sit with. This same woman had been hearing the global story, the story that circulates in every development program, every digital inclusion campaign, every side event like this one. Use your phone and social media to promote your business, share your community story, participate in civic life, build your influence online. She had heard that story, she wanted it and she was working towards it. But at home, on the streets, in the market, the counter narrative was being reinforced and amplified by the very platforms they had promised would liberate her. In Ghana right now, there is content circulating widely online built around the idea that women over 30 who are not yet married are expiring past their value, no longer their priority. This content gets enormous rich. It is framed as entertainment, as jokes. And that framing does a lot of work because it insulates the creators from accountability, while the message lands exactly as intended. And then let a woman post about her own rights, let her name what is happening, let her use the word feminism. The same platform, the same bridge, but this time it ends in reverse. Coordinated backlash, public mockery and silencing. The platform is not neutral, as many of us have already mentioned, it has a clear direction, and that direction is not towards women full participation in public life. The consequence of all of this is something our frameworks have not yet named properly. Women are not always leaving these spaces in ways that we can measure. Many of them are staying, but they are going quiet. They scroll, they observe, they do not post, they do not engage. They are technically present and functionally excluded. And because our metrics measure account creation and training completion and device distribution, we are counting these women as included, while their actual withdrawal is happening underneath the data. This has direct consequences for political and civic life that we cannot afford to ignore. Ghana's 2024 general elections were widely regarded as having been won on social media in significant parts. Through social media, political Messaging, voter mobilization, accountability, public debate, all of it happened online. If women are being pushed out of digital public life through domestic surveillance, social punishment, and the kind of algorithmic environment I just described, then the conversation is no longer only about smartphones or digital skills. It's about whether women have the freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, especially in spaces where civic power is now being organized and exercised. If those spaces are structurally hostile to women's voices, then women are being excluded from democratic participation, not by any written law, but by design. And I cannot sit here and be talking about women being excluded from digital public life without mentioning Iman Mazari, a friend I met in Norway last year who is a human rights lawyer and defender in Pakistan. I have had the opportunity to witness the work she does to ensure access to equitable and responsive justice for women and girls. While pregnant. She has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for writing about state violence and abuse on social media. If that is not the clearest possible illustration of what it means to systematically exclude a woman from public life, then I do not know what it is. And it's not a separate story from what I am describing in Ghana. It is the same story operating at a different scale and with different instruments. Women who speak up are punished. The form of punishment changes depending on where you are. The underlying logic does not. So I want to be specific about what needs to change. And the first thing that needs to change is platform accountability. Many of us have already stated it, but the algorithmic amplification of content that degrees and dehumanizes women is not an organic culture development. It is a product decision made by people in rooms, optimizing for engagement. And thankfully some of those people are in this room. But I want to say something to the ones who are not in this room, because I think the ground is shifting under their feet, whether they are paying attention or not. We just witnessed what happened when communities lost trust in OpenAI. People deleted their accounts. They moved. They chose differently. A collective backlash that no profit margin, no market valuation, no board meetings, could simply absorb and move past. And that matters importantly because it's a reminder that the relationship between technology and people is not one directional. We are entering a moment where people, including corporations and businesses, are beginning to choose ethical technology and advancement over unchecked profits. Not because they have suddenly become more principled, but because the cost of not doing so is becoming visible in ways that affect their bottom line. Sorry. ITU · Associate Gender Affairs Officer · Bodhaba [1:15:06]: Thank you. Thank you very much. Igmat, can I ask you to say one final word? Because we Want to have the time to at least have one question for the floor and it's already 15. Thank you so much. Paribus Space · Founder · Ikmatzun Jenemesani [1:15:16]: I just want to highlight on one thing which I think because when it comes to the cost of digital participation itself, it's very expensive. Most of the tools, platforms and subscriptions that women and girls have been asked to use to participate in the digital economy are priced in foreign currencies, in US dollars, euros, pounds, with no consideration for what that cost means in context like the ones I come from. A monthly subscription that feels negligible in one economy is a genuine barrier to entry in another. Women are being told to get online and build their digital presence, while the infrastructure of that presence is priced entirely outside their economic reality. Lastly, thank you more for giving me that minute because I think I am not here. Yeah, I am not here because my story is exceptional. Honestly, it should not require an exceptional story to get a practitioner from any of the underserved areas in Ghana or the Global south to be in this room where this conversation is happening. That should be structurally normal. And until the funding models, the governance frameworks and the platforms, their pricing structures and their political will are genuinely designed to make that normal, we are not doing any inclusion. And the question that I'm leaving with this room with the platform builders and policymakers and funders and framework writers is a simple one. What are you going to do differently listening to me today, what are you going to do differently tomorrow? Because if you sat here and listened to me and your answer is nothing, then we should be honest with ourselves about gatherings like this one, on what we are actually designing for when it comes to technology or digital inclusion for women. Thank you. Thank you. ITU · Associate Gender Affairs Officer · Bodhaba [1:17:07]: Okay, thank you very much Igmat for bringing this important festive. Sadly, for the interest of time, we're not going to have time to let any question from the floor because the next session is already waiting. But thank you very much. I really invite everyone to connect and I'm just going to give the floor now to Ursula Weinhoven to share just some closing reflection. Ursula, the floor is yours and then we are over briefly. ITU · Director; ITU Representative to the UN · Ursula Weinhoven [1:17:34]: Thank you so much Maud. Thanks so much to the wonderful co hosts. Thanks so much to the incredible speakers. Thanks very much for our wonderful participants. I think you have seen here equals in tech.org, this is where you can find more information and one of the actions that you can take if your government, organization, company or institution wants to work together to advance women's participation in the digital age. We invite you to join the equals partnership and collaborate with us. This is where you can get some more information or come up and talk to Maude and the colleagues. There'll be also a lot of opportunities around International Girls in ict day on April 23rd, and of course, at AI for Good Summit in Geneva in July. So thank you all and have a lovely afternoon. Afternoon.