How Ed-Tech can play a crucial role in women empowerment

Education is a basic human right, yet gender bias cripples the lives of millions of women and girls, around the world.

According to UNESCO*, less than 40% of countries provide equal access to education to girls and boys. Despite efforts, the majority of children dropping out of school are girls. Gender prejudice is one of the major reasons behind deprivation.

However, amidst variations from country to country, women have outnumbered men in enrolling in higher education globally. As per the recent survey* conducted by Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India, the gender gap in higher education across education institutes has reduced in the past five years, consistently. Enrollment of female students exceeded the number of male students at UG and PG level in 2016-17.

The increase in enrollment numbers indicates women are no more bound with limitations and are scraping off incompetency tags.

What can help women gain education and empower them further?

Evolution! In the past few years, conventional means of teaching and learning are evolving into online education and the progression is welcomed as it enables aspiring females to get the education of their choice.

In the recent past, educational technology (Ed-Tech) has demonstrated its potential as an accelerator for education, political, socio-economic empowerment of women, and promoter of gender equality.

Given below are key indicators of how ed-tech can empower women.

  • Access to quality education – Online learning allows access to numerous options of quality education.
  • Beats gender disparity – Beats gender bias and provides equal opportunity for women.
  • Employment – Exposure to technology aids in getting employment opportunities for women from all classes, thereby eliminating socioeconomic bias.
  • Knowledge sharing – Allows exchange of thoughts and knowledge.
  • Access to information – Technology facilitates women to get crucial information about health, subsistence, farming, weather, politics, economy through the internet.

In ed-tech, times are changing from all-boys club to women-oriented boardrooms, and below mentioned women, ed-tech founders* have set an example.

Founders NameCompany Name

Lynda Weinman

Lynda.com

Daphne Koller

Coursera

Kimberly Bryant

Black Girls CODE

Carol Barash

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* UNESCO: Women and Girls’ Education – Facts & Figures
* MHRD Survey: All India Survey on Higher Education 2016-17 (page 34)
* Ed-Tech Founders: Women in EdTech
* Education Technology: Women in Technology

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