Mon, 20 Jun 2005 04:00:00 -0400
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A Global Action Plan for Women in IT

For the first time, technology leaders from 22 countries and six continents will gather to explore concrete ways in which access by girls and women to technology can be increased in order to effect economic, social and political change. The First International Symposium on Women and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) will convene June 12-14 in downtown Baltimore. Participants from developing and developed countries will include leaders from business, government and non-government agencies and educational institutions.

The symposium was organized and is co-hosted by UMBC’s Center for Women and Information Technology (CWIT), the World Trade Center Institute, the World Bank and Women in Global Science and Technology; it is held in cooperation with the ACM (Association of Computer Machinery)

Through the exchange of ideas and experiences, the symposium’s organizers expect to create an action agenda to significantly increase the international participation of girls and women in ICT–including leadership of women in technology business–in the next five years.

“This is an important time for women and technology,” said Claudia Morrell, CWIT’s executive director. “ICTs for girls and women will either become a new tool for increased access to education, economics, and social equity or it will create a new form of discrimination. In either case, the ramifications for all of us are vast. The symposium will address topics that we know need exploring, and we have sought out the world’s leading authorities to discuss current hurdles and possible solutions.”

Among the speakers will be authorities on ICT and the global economy, including widely published authors Jo Sanders, Sue Rosser and Sophia Huyer, as well as corporate leaders from North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. Maryland’s lieutenant governor, Michael Steele, will address participants at an opening reception. The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Commission for Women, Ellen Sauerbrey, honorary chair, and UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski will be keynote speakers.

More information about the symposium is available online.

(6/6/05)