New Democracy #28: Empowering Women in the Digital Era

In light of International Women’s Day we discuss gender equality via digital inclusion. With music by DJ Isis. Walk in from 19.30

While our societies are rapidly becoming more digital, not everyone is benefitting from this digitalisation. Shockingly, women are still greatly outnumbered in the tech world. Figures from European Parliament show that only 9% of software developers in Europe and 19% of CEO’s in the ICT sector are women.

What do we need to do on the European as well as the national level to make our 21st century societies more digitally inclusive? Join us on Friday 9 March, a day after International Women’s Day, to discuss with different experts how digitalisation can make a positive impact on our societies and the empowerment of women. After the conversation we meet each other during a special performance by famous Dutch DJ Isis.

—
WITH:
Saskia Nijs, researcher at the Vrije Universiteit (Amsterdam) and columnist at Financieel Dagblad. Also employee at Philips, part of their diversity team, and speaker and advisor on the 21st century organization. She is also a role model for girls in tech via InspiringFifty. Many of her projects focus on the way digital technology can bring people to their highest potential on the work floor.

Konstantina Davaki, research fellow at the department of Social Policy at the London School of Economics. Among her research interests are comparative social policy, equality, gender and welfare. Currently she is writing a report commissioned by the European Parliament on the empowerment of women through digital inclusion.

Astrid Oosenbrug, co-founder of Cyberwerkplaats, a non-profit organization to help (young) hackers without a grade to develop their skills in an ethical way and help them to find a job in cyber security. From 2012 to 2017, she was a Dutch Member of Parliament and spokesperson on the portfolios ICT, governmental services, telecommunications and privacy & copyright. Before that she was a councilor of the municipality of Lansingerland and actively involved in the women and gay emancipation network of the Labour Party. She has also worked in several organizations as a system administrator.

Sjoerd Veltman, project leader of the Miss IT project at the ROC Amsterdam. Miss IT is an initiative encouraging girls and women to apply for ICT-related degrees and educational programs in the Netherlands.

Vivianne Bendermacher, founder of Techionista, a platform that focuses on the empowerment of women through technology. Previously she was editor in chief of popular science magazine KIJK and women’s magazine VIVA. Vivianne is frequently asked as tech expert in television program RTL Boulevard. With Techionista she aims to  educate women with coding skills and provide a platform to inspire women with female role models in tech.

Ineke Scheffers, founder of Girl Code and full-stack JavaScript developer at the ANWB. She founded Girl Code in 2015 to raise more awareness for and to bridge the gender gap in code by organising talks, workshops and demos. For this effort and being a role model through ’practising what you preach’ by retraining herself to the ICT work field she won Tech Talent at the 2018 Techionista awards.

DJ Isis, formally known as 100% Isis, is one of the female pioneers in the global electronic music scene. She kickstarted her career at age 17 with a residency at Club RoXY (Amsterdam) from 1992 to 1994. From that moment on, she started her long running international career, performing at famous venues and festivals all over the world in Europe, the US, Latin America, Asia, Africa and Oceania. From 2010 to 2012 Isis was Nightlife Ambassador (Nachtburgemeester) of Amsterdam.