The International Day of the Girl, established by the United Nations and observed every October 11, celebrates girls' rights, highlights the challenges they face, and promotes actions to empower them. Paired with International Women's Day on March 8, these observances spotlight the continuum from girlhood to womanhood and remind us that supporting girls today builds the women and leaders of tomorrow because, as the slogan goes, "who runs the world? girls!"
This topic is vital to efforts to increase representation of women in technology. Encouraging girls to explore STEM from an early age, providing mentorship, and creating inclusive educational and workplace environments helps close the gender gap in tech. Programs that pair classroom lessons with hands-on coding, robotics clubs, internships, and visible role models demonstrate that girls belong in tech and can lead innovation. Supporting girls into tech also means ensuring that women already in the industry can progress, be retained, and lead, challenges addressed in the Fast-Track to Success in Tech programme.
Feminism plays an important role in this conversation by advocating for gender equity, challenging stereotypes that dissuade girls from technical fields, and pushing for policies that remove barriers — such as unequal access to education, lack of childcare for caregivers, and biased hiring practices. Feminist-informed initiatives emphasize intersectionality, ensuring opportunities reach girls and women across different races, socioeconomic backgrounds, abilities, and geographies.
Concrete actions to support girls into tech include: outreach linked to UN observances (using International Day of the Girl and International Women's Day as focal points), expanding mentorship and scholarship programs, partnering schools with tech companies for real-world exposure, and promoting media that portrays diverse female technologists. Celebrating these international days is more than symbolic—it's an opportunity to mobilize resources, raise awareness, and create pathways so that girls can grow into the tech leaders who truly run the world.
Empowering Girls to Choose Careers in Tech
Tech needs diverse voices, and girls belong at the center of innovation. This piece explains how to inspire and empower girls to consider a career in tech and why tech is an excellent choice despite the industry's challenges for women.
Why tech is a great career choice for girls
Technology touches every part of our lives — health, education, finance, entertainment, climate solutions and more. A career in tech offers:
Impact: Build products and systems that solve real-world problems and improve lives.
High demand and pay: Strong job growth, competitive salaries, and transferable skills.
Creativity and variety: Roles range from design and product management to engineering, data science, and cybersecurity.
Flexibility: Many tech jobs offer remote work, freelancing, and project-based opportunities that can support work–life balance.
Continuous learning: Fast-evolving fields mean constant growth, new challenges, and opportunities for advancement.
Common challenges women face in tech, and why they shouldn't deter girls
Women often encounter bias, underrepresentation in senior roles, pay gaps, and less visible role models. These are real barriers, but they're surmountable:
Awareness and allyship: More organizations are tracking diversity metrics and creating accountability.
Support networks: Mentorship, sponsorship, and women-focused communities help close experience gaps and open doors.
Role models: Visible women leaders and creators inspire the next generation and demonstrate achievable paths.
Highlighting challenges honestly while showing concrete solutions helps girls make empowered decisions rather than being discouraged by them.
How to inspire and empower girls to pursue tech
Practical actions at home, in school, and in industry create a pipeline of confident girls who see tech as for them:
Start early with exposure: Introduce coding toys, apps, and hands-on STEM activities in elementary school to build interest and confidence.
Make learning relevant: Connect projects to problems girls care about — climate, health, social impact, so tech feels meaningful.
Provide role models and mentors: Invite women engineers, designers, and founders to speak, mentor, or shadow. Representation normalises success.
Create safe learning spaces: Encourage collaborative, low-pressure environments where mistakes are part of learning.
Teach both technical and soft skills: Combine coding with communication, teamwork, and leadership training.
Offer scholarships and pathways: Support apprenticeships, internships, and targeted scholarships that reduce financial and access barriers.
Engage parents and educators: Train teachers and inform parents about career paths, industry demand, and how to support girls' ambitions.
Build communities: Women-in-tech clubs, hackathons for girls, and online forums provide peer support and sustained motivation.
Practical programs and actions organisations can take
Implement mentorship and sponsorship programs that pair junior women with senior advocates.
Offer flexible work arrangements and clear parental leave policies to retain talent across life stages.
Audit hiring and promotion processes to remove bias and increase transparency.
Fund local school programs, coding camps, and community workshops targeted at girls.
Celebrate and publicize women’s achievements internally and externally to create visible role models.
How girls can take the first steps
Girls who want to explore tech can begin with simple, low-cost actions:
Try free online coding platforms, tutorials, or beginner kits to build a portfolio of small projects.
Join a local or virtual coding club, robotics team, or maker space.
Seek mentors through school teachers, alumni networks, or industry programs.
Attend hackathons, workshops, and tech meetups to learn and network.
Document learning and projects publicly (blogs, GitHub, portfolios) to showcase skills.
Music and technology have always moved in tandem, and together they create powerful pathways that inspire girls to imagine, create, and lead. Songs like "who runs the world? girls!" by Beyoncé do more than celebrate female strength; they amplify messages across streaming platforms, social media, and immersive live experiences that reach billions. When artists such as Beyoncé, Madonna, Rihanna, and Lizzo harness production tools, visual technologies, and data-driven promotion, they model how creative vision and technical skill combine to build influence. Emerging stars like Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift show younger audiences that songwriting, audio engineering, and digital storytelling are intertwined careers girls can pursue, while historical figures like Aretha Franklin demonstrate the lasting cultural impact of musical leadership that technology now amplifies and preserves.
Beyond the stage, music-tech innovations lower barriers for girls to participate directly. Affordable digital audio workstations, mobile apps for composition, online tutorials, virtual reality concerts, and coding bootcamps that combine beat-making with programming all make creative careers more accessible. Female musicians who publicly engage with technology, collaborating with producers, directing visual effects, or launching apps and initiatives, offer concrete role models that normalise tech fluency as part of artistic identity. By highlighting artists who lead both creatively and technologically, educators and communities can inspire girls to see STEM and the arts not as separate paths but as a single, empowering ecosystem where voices are amplified, and leadership is shaped: Who runs the world? girls!
Girl Geek Network
11.10.2025
women in tech,
international day of the girl,
IWD,
international women's day
