Every year, on February 11th, we celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.

The day was proclaimed by UNESCO and aims to (1) highlight the incredible contributions of women in STEM and (2) encourage more and more girls worldwide to study and work in those fields.

But also, and most importantly, the International Day of Women and Girls in STEM is a call to action! Indeed, women are still underrepresented in those fields, especially in Technology and the most innovative sectors of AI and digitalization.

The gap between women studying STEM and those actually working or launching businesses in the field is massive—while talent is there, the STEM business world is still overwhelmingly male-dominated and missing out on game-changing female innovators.

To drive change and innovation, we need more women involved: we need more girls to dream big in those fields. And to encourage more girls to join STEM subjects, we need to provide more opportunities. 

In alignment with the EU’s Women in Digital strategy, which seeks to ensure that everyone, regardless of gender, gets a fair chance to benefit from and contribute to the digital age the Erasmus+ programme is a European initiative to break barriers and empower the next generation of leaders. Erasmus+ prioritizes youth and gender equality, creating opportunities to help girls develop skills to thrive in the digital era.

As part of this mission, Efektas is proud to bring the FUTURE Rising Entrepreneurs project to life! This exciting initiative is designed to equip young people (18-30) with the digital and green skills they need to launch and grow their businesses. 

By creating opportunities—especially for young women—to develop essential skills, FUTURE is helping shape a new wave of innovative, inclusive and future-ready entrepreneurs in the digital era!

This February 11th, let’s celebrate women and girls in STEM, shaping together an EU which creates occasions to foster gender equality in digitalization.