Education is the single most powerful tool we have for unlocking economic opportunity and building a foundation for a successful future.
Technology plays an increasingly critical role in that equation, improving options for and the quality of education for millions around the world.
Empowering Girls and Women Through Education and Technology
Expanding technology access is a crucial early step in empowering underserved populations, including girls and women.
The educational benefits made possible by technology can be powerful no matter if a person wishes to learn how to speak English, increase crop yield or become an entrepreneur. Click here for more information.
Through the Intel Global Girls and Women Initiative, Intel is working to empower millions of girls and women around the world by closing the gender gap in education access, inspiring more girls and women to become creators of technology, and connecting girls and women to opportunity through technology access.
Internet Access: A Global Example
Internet access differs dramatically around the world. Notably left behind are girls and women. On average, nearly 25 percent fewer women than men are online in developing countries. This represents 200 million fewer women than men who are online today.
- In Sub-Saharan Africa, the size of the gap is nearly 45 percent.
- The gap is nearly 35 percent in South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.
- It is nearly 30 percent in parts of Europe and across Central Asia.
- In most higher-income countries, women’s Internet access only minimally lags that of men’s and in countries such as France and the United States, in fact exceeds it.
- As a comparison, the gender gap in China is about 20 percent.
Statistics from Women and the Web Report by Intel Corporation
Educate a Girl, Change the World
Girl Rising is a global action campaign for girls' education. It started with a groundbreaking, inspirational flm. Now it’s a movement to lift barriers to girls' education, to drive change and motivate leaders to take action.
Intel is a founding strategic partner of the Girl Rising campaign as well as supporter of the digital distribution of the film.
Girl Rising
From Academy Award-nominated director Richard E. Robbins, "Girl Rising" journeys around the globe to witness the strength of the human spirit and the power of education to change the world.
Viewers get to know nine unforgettable girls living in the developing world: ordinary girls who confront tremendous challenges and overcome nearly impossible odds to pursue their dreams. Prize-winning authors put the girls’ remarkable stories into words, and renowned actors give them voice.
Join the Campaign
Want to show the film at your school, company or community organization? Millions have experienced Girl Rising around the world. Bring the flm to your community by hosting a screening. A story can inspire. A story can deliver powerful truths. A story can change lives. Click here to learn how to get involved with Girl Rising.
Connecting Women to Opportunity Through Technology
Intel She Will Connect
The Intel She Will Connect program aims to close the Internet gender gap by connecting millions of girls and women to opportunity through technology. The Internet in particular, has transformed the lives of billions of people. It functions as a gateway to ideas, resources, and opportunities that never could have been realized before.know how to use the Internet, but we don’t know how to use it to benefit our lives.”
Women and the Web
Technology, the Internet in particular, has transformed the lives of billions of people. It functions as a gateway to ideas, resources and opportunities that never could have been realized before. All around the world, the Internet is helping people to imagine new possibilities. But girls and women are being left behind.
As the Internet can provide enormous economic, social and professional value, the Internet gender gap has very serious consequences for women and for society more broadly.
Learn more about the Women and the Web Report.
Inspiring Girls to Become Technology Creators
MakeHers Report: Engaging Girls and Women in Technology through Making, Creating, and Inventing.
Our world needs more female innovators to tackle its toughest challenges.
The Maker movement has the potential to engage more girls and women in creating technology: Learn how Making can inspire more women to be technology innovators.
Six ways to engage more girls and women in making
- Build: Build more girl- and women-inclusive maker environments in public places like libraries and schools.
- Encourage: Encourage parents to "embrace the mess" and engage in making with their sons and daughters.
- Design: Design maker spaces that enable open-ended investigation of projects meaningful to girls and women.
- Align: Align with current fads to attract girls to activities such as coding and making hardware.
- Develop: Develop initiatives that five girls more access to female mentors and makers of their own age.
- Include: Include facilitators in maker spaces to create a safe, supportive, inclusive environment for girls and women.
Intel supports a range of programs, competitions, and resources that seek to inspire and empower more girls and women to create and build the technology of the future.
Intel focuses on programs that feature hands-on activities such as "Maker" projects and coding, involve peer mentors and role models and connect technology and engineering careers to positive social impact.
Yes, Girls Do Code
From creating apps that teach coding to inventing umbrellas that light up when hit with raindrops, girls show they have the skills and vision to excel in technology careers.
The Girls Who Code program teaches girls coding skills through computer and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) projects to inspire and prepare them for college and to close the gender gap in technology-related companies. Watch the video.
Intel Science Talent Search (STS)
Intel STS finalists demonstrate vision, creativity and determination to make the world better using science. Projects range from seeking better ways to locate cancer cells, to using computer science to find distant galaxies. Five female semifinalists and finalists in the Intel Science Talent Search share their groundbreaking discoveries in medicine, astronomy and biology, breaking down gender stereotypes in STEM to show that girls can change the world. Explore their projects.
Exposing Girls to Technology
The CompuGirls program offers girls from under-resourced school districts the opportunity to attend summer and after-school classes to learn the latest in digital media, games and virtual worlds.
It’s not often people have the opportunity to connect professional skills with their personal passions. Eshe Pickett, a design automation engineer at Intel, believes that volunteering with CompuGirls is an opportunity to change the world, "one girl at a time." Pickett not only enjoys her job, she enjoys the unique opportunity to combine her professional skills with her passion for impacting the lives of young women. Read more...
Click here for more information about Intel’s initiatives to inspire girls and young women to pursue studies and careers in technology, engineering and computer science and to see all the ways Intel is collaborating to connect people to their potential and advance economic empowerment.
Article by Suzanne Fallender, Intel Corporation
All photos courtesy of Intel Corporation
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