Communications of the ACM
It's Cool to Be a Geek, Eu Tells Women
European Commissioner for Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes said, "Attracting more women to tech careers is an economic imperative."
Credit: Yves Herman/Reuters
The European Commission has created a new campaign to attract women to the information and communications technology (ICT) sector.
Launched as part of the recent International Women's Day, the campaign seeks to encourage more young women to study technology and pursue careers in the industry by celebrating role models and highlighting inspiring women in online videos.
Women are needed to help ease the unemployment problem in the European Union, according to technology commissioner Neelie Kroes. There were more than 400,000 job vacancies in the ICT sector in February, but women account for less than 30 percent of the workforce. The number of job vacancies could swell to more than 500,000 by next year and more than 900,000 by 2020.
Women represent 19.2 percent of bosses in ICT, compared with 45.2 percent of management in other industries. The number of men studying technology at the university level is stable, but the figure is falling for women.
"ICT is no longer for the geeky few--it is cool, and it is the future!" Kroes says.
From Reuters
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