The WOMEN IN ENGINEERING FORUM/IEEE – 9th World Forum on Internet of Things, took place last week, on October 18th 2023, with the participation of Renata Frade, a researcher at DigiMedia.
The session Advancing Gender Equality in the Technology Education featured two inspiring speakers sharing their perspectives on gender equality and girls’ education in technology. Promoting gender equality and empowering women is not only a matter of social justice but also an economic imperative. The participation of women in the workforce and in leadership positions is vital for innovation, productivity, and sustainable growth. It is crucial to invest in girls’ education and ensure gender equality from an early age if we are to build a more inclusive and diverse workforce in the future. By integrating technofeminist perspectives into children’s education, we can encourage educators to critically assess how technology is taught and used, ensuring that it does not perpetuate gender stereotypes but rather serves as a tool to break down barriers.
The Keynote 2 – Women in technology: Contexts of challenges and opportunities in STEM – debated the women in tech inclusion, empowerment and training challenges, which have a multifactorial complexity, as they require knowledge of historical contexts of gender exclusion, as well as social, economic, cultural and educational contexts, for example, of contemporary times. There are challenges to be overcome by women and young people in schools, many still without access to the internet, others because they do not know information about STEM careers as an option presented since school. In this presentation, a summary of relevant historical contexts regarding women in IT will be discussed, the importance of role models in the training of new generations in universities and the job market, as well as the importance of female communities in IT, such as the Portuguese ones, from of partial results obtained in doctoral research. Aspects of technological feminism theories that point to challenges to be faced today will also be addressed, such as the increasing introduction of artificial intelligence into domestic and professional life in society.
You can find out more information about the event here.
SPEAKER: RENATA FRADE, UNIVERSITY OF AVEIRO, PORTUGAL
Renata Frade develops a women in tech doctoral research at the University of Aveiro/DeCa/DigiMedia (Portugal). This research is funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT). Her motivation for studies in the technological field was more emphasized 11 years ago, when she became a technology entrepreneur in Brazil. Fifteen years ago, she got to know transmedia theory and was a student of its main theorist, Dr. Henry Jenkins, at M.I.T. (Massachussets Institute of Technology, USA). During 2015 and 2017 she was an activist, speaker and volunteer for the international NGO of women in technology, founded in San Francisco (USA), Girls in Tech Brazil. She’s been invited to be a keynote speaker at technological symposiums, such as Gartner’s (the largest technology research company in the world), feminist events and events for society (such as the Porto Feminist Festival). She’s been writing technology articles for press media such as MobileTime and Digitalk, Mídia Ninja. She is the author of 15 fiction and non-fiction books by Brazilian and international publishers such as Unesp, Rocco, Springer, Patuá, Ria Editorial (Portugal), UA Editora (University of Aveiro, Portugal), Livros LabCom.IFP (Univ. da Beira Interior, Portugal). She took UX courses at the California Institute of Arts and USP. She was a Science, Health and Entertainment reporter at InfoGlobo journals. She graduated in Social Communication from PUC-Rio (where she took courses in computing at the Rio DataCentro laboratories), Master in Literature from UERJ. Storytelling and entrepreneurship student at Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center (San Francisco). IT developer (book application for children from Ziraldo and game for Canal Viva, highlighted). Benchmark, digital ethnography and interaction design analyst and consultant since 2019. Content producer and multiplatform campaigns for marketing, education, journalism, editorials (publishing) and corporate communication about Science and women in tech (Web Summit 2018, 2019 and 2020 for Mobile Time, Digitalks Portugal, Sanofi, Actelion, Fundação Biblioteca Nacional (Brasil), Fresenius etc.). Published in 15 academic and fiction books. Bachelor in Social Communication (Journalism) by Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio). Creator of LitGirlsBr, the first Brazilian multiplatform project of national authors of Brazilian literature, through the initiative O Livro Delas (Editora Rocco) was awarded the Roseli Doleski Pretto trophy by the National Literary Journeys of the University of Passo Fundo, in 2017. She was a science and culture reporter of O Globo and Extra newspapers, and reviewer of editorial releases in Jornal do Brasil.
Find more about Renata Frade:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/renatafrade/
