UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson in speaking about gender equality and launching the HeForShe campaign at United Nations Headquarters in 2014 asked,
"How can we affect change in the world when only half of it is invited or feel welcome to participate in the conversation? Men… I would like to take this opportunity to extend your formal invitation. Gender equality is your issue too."
When it comes to men's participation in gender equality, the "why" is clear, but the "how" is a bit more complicated. Can men be more effectively engaged in gender equality efforts in the tech sector?
Founding EQUALS partners ITU and UN Women hosted an informal discussion on 25 June 2018 on exactly this question. The goals were to talk about what is already being done in this area, identify lessons learned from existing engagement and explore opportunities for further collaboration to effectively engage men. Participants from businesses large and small, UN entities, and civil society shared their perspectives. A resource list of initiatives, tools and articles on the theme was also crowdsourced and added to as a result of the discussion.
The Male Champions of Change for Global Tech group, recently announced in support of the leadership dimension of EQUALS, is one such effort seeking to engage some of the most influential men in the tech sector.
Find out more about how EQUALS is working for gender equality in the digital sphere.
Ursula Wynhoven is the ITU Representative to the United Nations.