Celebrating women’s achievements is nothing short of celebrating our future. As a society, we need balance and transparency to ensure that no one is left behind as we shape our future. In the past few years, women around the world fought for a better world and persisted in the face of adversity—even in the numerous conflict zones dominating this decade. And we continue to see women breaking stereotypes, embracing new roles, and challenging bias in their march to removing structural barriers. The march has come a long way. In fact, this year’s Women’s Day focus revolves around innovation to achieve gender equality. The theme, “Think equal, build smart, innovate for change,” seeks to highlight innovation by women and girls, for women and girls.
Social innovations help foster a gender-equal world, a world that works for both women and men. Innovation and technology provide unprecedented opportunities for developing and influencing transformative gains for society. When women’s needs and experiences shape digital transformation, they will be influencing the design and implementation of innovations that determine our future as a society. By ushering in smart solutions that address the needs of men and women equally, women are likely to bring about a new wave of disruption, and play a decisive role in emerging industries.
Innovating for change
When women’s ideas and experiences influence innovations, it will bring about transformative change to infrastructure that shapes our future. Innovation and technology reflect their designers and makers. Now, women will take the step or seize the opportunity to create and to provide feedback on products and services that may exclude them. For instance, it might be urban planning that uses crowdsourced data for earmarking harassment zones or trouble spots in a metro station. Or it could be toilet facilities in public spaces that support women’s period management needs. Or it could be breast-feeding rooms for lactating mothers. In all these scenarios, innovation and technology with a gender perspective plays a crucial role to remove barriers.
It is high time that the realization dawns on the role played by algorithms behind “Big Data” that determine the design and development of numerous current projects. It is possible that women have been routinely left out of the data on which decisions are made. By giving feedback on such projects and by pressing for change, they can also show the way forward for groups that are under-represented and marginalized. This brings women to play a major role in tackling some of the deepest-reaching social problems that had affected them in various ways, and in forcing businesses and governments to think equal, build smart solutions, and innovate for change.
