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"Cyberellas are IT!"


EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding has picked up on WIGSAT's "Cyberella" concept in a new campaign called Cyberellas are IT. This signals a new EU strategy to encourage more women to develop information and communication technology (ICT) skills – to become 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."

Go to the IT Girls website to see more information on this European initiative, including the video Cyberellas are IT.

The book Cinderella or Cyberella? Empowering Women in the Knowledge Economy edited by Nancy Hafkin and Sophia Huyer of WIGSAT is available at Kumarian Books and Amazon.

The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World
 Fourth Edition, 2008 by Joni Seager

The most up-to-date global perspective on how women are living today across continents and cultures

In this completely revised and updated fourth edition of her groundbreaking atlas, Joni Seager provides comprehensive and accessible analysis of up-to-the-minute global data on the key issues facing women today: equality, motherhood, feminism, the culture of beauty, women at work, women in the global economy, changing households, domestic violence, lesbian rights, women in government, and more. The result is an invaluable resource on the status of women around the world today.

Data for the section on Wired Women was provided in part by WIGSAT.

Engendering the Knowledge Society: Measuring Women's Participation

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.

More... WIGSTAT, Women and Global Science and Technology, Women in Global Science and Technology