 | | Mariya GabrielStephanie Lecocq/EPA, via Shutterstock |
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“We have to turn to our many talented girls and women to tackle the challenges we face today” |
— Mariya Gabriel, a Bulgarian politician |
In Her Words invited female leaders to share their thoughts on what a post-pandemic world might look like. We are publishing their views in this newsletter throughout December. You can read the full collection of interviews here. |
This week, we hear from Mariya Gabriel. She is a Bulgarian politician who serves as the European commissioner for innovation, research, culture, education and youth. |
What do you see in the post-pandemic world in terms of education for girls and women? |
If we want to emerge stronger, we have to turn to our many talented girls and women to tackle the challenges we face today. |
For example, too few innovators and entrepreneurs are women. The numbers are quite alarming. Only 16 percent of start-ups in Europe have women as founders or co-founders. We need more women to help us in the recovery. |
In Europe, of 1,000 women university graduates, only 24 go on to information and communication related fields and only six are making careers of it. At the same time, girls at the age of 10 or 12 — more than 90 percent are interested in information and technology. That means something happened between primary and secondary school and university. |
What can be done to keep girls interested? |
We need more role models, mentoring, training programs in order to show to our young girls that technology is not just guys in a dark room. |
What impact, if any, do you think the move to remote learning during the pandemic had? |
I think actually more girls will be more confident in their digital competencies and skills and their desire to have a career in the field of science and technology. We should maintain this self-confidence to encourage them to pursue a career in this — and to go to university and to study something new like artificial intelligence. |
More women are needed to work in artificial intelligence, right? |
It’s huge — because A.I. is working with data, and it’s possible to reproduce bias and discrimination — we definitely need more girls. |
What are you doing in this area? |
There’s the Digital Education Action Plan. We are proposing, with the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, to have training programs for 40,000 people — and at least 40 percent women and girls — in technology and artificial intelligence in particular. |
As I understand it, the plan’s goal is to develop a “high-performing digital education ecosystem” in Europe, reflecting lessons learned during the pandemic, as well as enhancing digital skills and competencies. What ages will these training programs serve, and when will they start? |
We didn’t define the ages, because we would like to preserve the openness and diversity. And my hope is it will start after Jan. 1, 2021. It depends on the final negotiations on our budget. |
It’s really important to engage girls in concrete projects. It’s great to see there are a lot of girls interested in blockchains or high-performance computing or artificial intelligence. Now, we need to have more project-oriented initiatives — to show girls that we are not just here to listen to them and to show that we are concerned but involve them in the solution. |
In Her Words is taking a holiday break and will be back in early January. You can always write to us at inherwords@nytimes.com. |
Here are five articles from The Times you may have missed. |
 | | Stella Tennant with the designer Karl Lagerfeld in the Chanel Metiers d’Art show in Paris in 2011.Benoit Tessier/Reuters |
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- “She had a grace that was impossible to copy or explain.” Stella Tennant the British model who was an inspiration to designers like Karl Lagerfeld and Gianni Versace, died on Tuesday at 50. [Read her obituary]
- “I put forth and I maintain if I was white I wouldn’t have to go through that.” The case of Susan Moore, a medical doctor who died of complications from Covid-19, has generated outrage and renewed calls to grapple with biased medical treatment of Black patients. [Read the story]
- “You still have to be Diane Keaton or an alien-slayer to make it as a working mother in America.” If the pandemic undid three decades of progress on gender equality, one has to wonder how real that progess was in the first place, writes Kim Brooks in Opinion. [Read in Opinion]
- “Please give a detailed description.” Shere Hite explained how women orgasm — and was hated for it. [Read the story]
- “It feels like I live in two different realities.” NYT Parenting looked at the experiences of parents who are medical workers and who, like so many other essential workers, put their physical and mental well-being on the line to do their jobs. [Read the story]
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In Her Words is edited by Francesca Donner. Our art director is Catherine Gilmore-Barnes, and our photo editor is Sandra Stevenson. |
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