The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) has developed an exploratory opinion on the Digital Gender Gap to help inform discussion on this critical issue.

With women currently occupying around 20 per cent of technical ICT roles, the exploratory opinion was requested by the European Parliament to feed into a debate on “Digitalisation and the women’s role”, organised by the EP’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) on 17-21 September 2018 in Tallinn, Estonia.

The opinion looks into the digital gender gap in education system and the labour market. It analyses the reasons behind this phenomenon it and makes proposals on how to increase the participation of girls in STEM and ICT studies and boost the presence of women in the digital sector. It also looks into the pros and cons of digitalisation and its impact on women’s life-work balance.

Written by Giulia Barbucci, the paper states: “It is essential to ensure digital literacy and education for all, with a particular focus on girls, in order to remove the digital gender gap at its roots. More female digital role models are of primary importance in overcoming stereotyping.”

The full paper is available here.