Portugal formalizes Alliance for Equality in Information and Communication Technologies – XXII Government
As government entities, universities and companies that are in the Engineers for a Day program formalized the Alliance for Equality in Information and Communication Technologies, in a ceremony that included the participation of the Minister of State and the Presidency, Mariana Vieira da Silva.
The added value of this alliance will be the fact that it will become the biggest cluster for the promotion of equality in Information and Communication Technologies, since a digital transition will necessarily impose an increase in the participation of women in the sector.
So far, under the Engenheiras por Um Dia program, 135 partner entities, 75 different entities, especially companies in the technology sector, and 10 municipalities, 45 primary and secondary schools, and 15 higher education institutions have already participated.
The creation of the Alliance materializes the formalization of a commitment between all entities, serving as an aggregator of this theme and the need for gender equality to be transversal to the entire digital transition.
The Engenheiras por Um Dia program started in 2017 and has already been published in five editions, online as part of the National Strategy for Equality and Non-Discrimination – Portugal Mais Igual and the Action Plan for the Digital Transition, and since its creation, it has had participation 10,411 young students, in more than 460 practical laboratory activities, a mentoring place and with reference models.
The Alliance was formalized between the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality (CIG), which it will coordinate, in articulation with the Portuguese Association for Diversity and Inclusion – APPDI and with other partner entities, from companies, universities and municipalities.
The objective remains to promote the digital inclusion of women and their respective participation in engineering and technology, consolidating and structuring systematic forms of cooperation and dissemination of the work carried out by partner entities.
Within the scope of the Alliance, the partner entities also reinforce their commitment to cooperate with each other in an active and very concrete way to promote the more general objective of combating sexual segregation in educational choices and professions, in its various dimensions.
The Alliance will also promote the development of initiatives that contribute to action and reflection on the challenges and potential of emerging technological areas such as artificial intelligence in terms of equality between women and men.