Theme for this years International Women’s Day is ‘DigitALL: Innovation and technology for Gender Equality.’The entire world is going digital and obviously women who are close to 50 percent in the global population and who also contribute immensly in all aspect of global development can not be left behind. World Bank in its 2022 data placed women in the world at 49.7% and the average percentage of population of  women in most countries of the world is between 49 to 51percent placing female population in Nigeria at above 49%. 

This data is  trying to establish  that whatever is happening in the Digital world, in innovation and technology, women generally should be part of it. Inspite of the fact that women make up half of the world population, fewer women have acess to the Internet than men. Women’s lives depend on innovation and technology just like men. Almost every thing currently go through digital process and unlike men most women shy away from Internet and this hinders them from developing the necessary skills to engage in digital space.

International Women day 2023 under this theme recognises and celebrate women and girls who are championing the advancement of transformation technology and also exploring the impact of the digital gender gap as well as protect the right of women and girls in digital space and addressing  gender based digital violence
Digital violence women experience includes among others cyber bullying, cyber stalking, doxxing, hate speech, gender disinformation, sexting, sexual abuse and cyber sex  trafficking.
Women and young ones should be empowered to prevent digital gender based violence. Equal participation of women in technology can boost digital economy and Nigerian women are urged to embrace digital technology for inclusive innovation

This year’s International Women Day  IWD aligns with the ongoing 67th Session of the Commission of the Status of Women CSW currently holding at United Nations Building in New York. Nigerian women are fully represented to discuss how far we have gone in ensuring equality in the area of Technology and Innovation. According to Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, women on the average make up 22% of the total number of Engineering and Tech University graduate. Much work needs to be done, women need to rise up for gender equality in tech industry by changing the narrative that Engineering and Tech are men’s profession.

On a brighter side we need to recall that six Nigerian girls from Regina Pacis Secondary  School, Onitsha won Gold in the Technovation Challenge at  Sanfrancisco USA in 2018. They won the challenge with a mobile application called FD- Detector which they developed to help tackle the challenge of fake pharmaceutical products in Nigeria. In her media chat recently on the IWD and the 67th Session of CSW, the Nigerian Minister of Women Affairs Paulin Tallen pointed out that the UN Women Snapshot indicates  that women exclusion from digital world has shaved $1Trillion from GDP of low and middle income countries in the last decade and this need to be tackled. The federal and States Ministries of Women Affairs should ensure Nigerian government  advocate and institutionalise  women participation in digital space

Mrs Nkiruka Ifekwem (Associate Professor) Lecturer, Management Consultant, Public Analyst and Gender Expert, writes from Lagos