Women and girls are underrepresented in STEM science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Globally, girls only account for around a third of students enrolled in STEM fields in higher education, and less than a third of STEM researchers are women.
In the Asia Pacific region, this number is even lower. With the rapid pace of technological change and innovation increasingly shaping our world, gender equality in STEM is critical to ensuring that women, particularly those in the most vulnerable communities, have access to the opportunities of tomorrow and are included in how the future is designed. The bootcamp targets girls, aged 12 to 18, especially in rural and underdeveloped areas throughout China, to increase their digital literacy and knowledge of key STEM topics, enabling them to explore how digital tools can be utilized to create solutions that advance sustainable development.
Although they come from different places and backgrounds, they share one goal: to help their local communities and further advance the SDGs through the use of digital technology. We recently had a chance to talk with the girls to learn about their stories and hear their thoughts and reflections upon completing the bootcamp:.
In the past, I might have considered going out to work after finishing the ninth grade, but now I realize that studying is a very important thing, and I want to work hard for it. While taking part in the HER Digital Future bootcamp, she learned, for the first time, how to design small programs and use technology to solve practical problems.
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After speaking with some elderly members of her community, she discovered that they face several challenges living alone, such as inconvenience in mobility and lack of communication with others. Inspired by Sustainable Development Goal SDG 3: "Good Health and Well-being," she designed an APP with several functions, including an emergency call function and a mental health counseling service, that aim to better help the elderly connect with the outside world. Zhuoma said the bootcamp sparked her interest in learning STEM and allowed her to see the world from a wider perspective.
