The European Parliament adopted the resolution on
empowering women and girls through the digital sector.
All around the globe, women as a demographic group are
less likely to be online than men. 68 % of men and 62 % of women
use computers and the internet on a regular basis. 54 % of men,
compared to 48 % of women, use the internet on mobile
devices.
Digital models of communication have contributed to
the creation of conditions conducive to the increased dissemination
of hate speech and threats against women, with 18 % of women in
Europe having suffered some form of cyber harassment since reaching
adolescence.
On the other hand, digitalisation offers new
opportunities for entrepreneurship for women. Therefore, there is a
need to support female digital entrepreneurship as it is one of the
fastest growing and prospering sectors in the economy.
In this regard, Members called on the Commission
to:
- exploit and better target the Digital Agenda and the
Digital Single Market Strategy with a view to addressing the
serious gender gap within the ICT sector and fostering the
education and training of women and girls in ICT and other science,
technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)
subjects;
- implement the actions aimed at reducing the gender
pay, earnings and pension gaps, thus fighting poverty among
women.
The Commission and the Member States are called on
to:
- make funds available and to improve access to existing
funds in order to promote and support women entrepreneurs,
particularly in the framework of the digital transformation of
industry;
- support lifelong learning as well as training and
schemes which help participants to adapt better or to prepare for a
potential change of career path in accordance with the growing
demand for e-skills in many different sectors, paying particular
attention to women aged 55 and over, in particular those with
caregiver responsibilities, and women who have taken a break from
their career or are re-entering the workplace;
- promote women’s networks online, as they involve
a bottom-up approach to women’s empowerment;
- identify the opportunities and challenges of
digitalisation, also with regard to working conditions, such as
unstable forms of employment and work-related mental health
problems;
- promote STEM education for girls from a young age,
given that girls move away from STEM subjects at an earlier stage
of their educational path due to the gender stereotypes surrounding
these subjects;
- guarantee the protection of girls from advertising in
the digital environment that could incite them to behaviour harmful
to their health.
Lastly, Members called for the EU institutions,
agencies and bodies, as well as the Member States and their law
enforcement agencies, to cooperate and take concrete steps to
coordinate their actions to counter the use of ICT to commit crimes
related to trafficking in human beings, cyber-harassment and
cyber-stalking, given that they are often cross-border in nature
and that EU-level coordination is vital in order to prosecute these
crimes. Member States are invited to review their criminal law to
ensure that new forms of digital violence are defined and
acknowledged.