In December 2015, the General Assembly decided to establish an annual International Day to recognise the critical role that women and girls play in science and technology. Since then, 11 February has been a date to demand full and equal access and participation in science for women and girls.
According to UNESCO data, 133 million girls worldwide do not attend school. In addition, women continue to account for almost two-thirds of the 765 million adults without basic reading and writing skills. Poverty, geographical isolation, early marriage and pregnancy, and gender-based violence are some of the many obstacles listed by the organisation when addressing the reasons that prevent children and young people from exercising their right to participate in education, thus hindering their personal and professional development.
According to UN figures, women still account for only 28% of engineering degrees, only 12% of members of Spanish scientific academies are women, and only 33% of leadership positions in science and technology are held by women.
Fundación Telefónica and Fundación “la Caixa”, through their ProFuturo programme, work to guarantee access to quality digital education for thousands of children, eliminating gender bias and reflecting in their educational materials a world where disciplines related to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) are for everyone.
As an example of this, for the past seven years, ProFuturo has supported the Summer Schools programme, aimed at primary school children, whose workshops focus on concepts and skills related to computer programming, computational thinking and the proper use of technology. In addition, resources such as the Mathematics ProFuturo tool facilitate the understanding of concepts, enhancing students’ capacity for abstraction, logical reasoning and problem-solving.
