Financial, digital inclusion of women become central discussions in G20 Goa meet

Women delegates who took part in the G20 meeting in Goa on Monday laid special emphasis on the financial and digital inclusion of women across the globe to bridge the gender inequality gap.

The delegates were attending a meeting held ahead of the G20’s third Development Working Group meeting in the coastal state.

The former president of the United Nations’ General Assembly, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, participated in the discussions. She said, even today, women constantly strive to prove their places in the world and conform to the ‘imposter syndrome.’

She said women in leadership positions need to set examples to break these stereotypes. “There is a need to design institutions and systems that allow and welcome feminine leadership.”

Espinosa added, “Sisterhood and brotherhood alliances with the feminist men are critical to that development.”

The meeting also saw the participation of the founder and CEO of ‘GirlHype -Women Who Code’, Baratang Miya, who said since women form a large part of digital content users, they need to pioneer the algorithms that generate this content and completely understand the foundations upon which these are built.

She said that lack of tech literacy among women act as a major barrier for women to participate in job markets. “It can massively add to their self-esteem, help them understand, build and shape their own tech spaces,” she said.

Meanwhile, Susan Ferguson, Country Representative, of UN Women said that no one factor in silos can unlock the potential of women’s empowerment.

“Violence against women at work, a safe working environment with gender-responsive infrastructure and responsibility sharing are crucial considerations,” she said.

Ferguson said women’s skilling programmes must be complemented with institutional efforts towards supporting job matching, access to suitable transportation to work, a safe working environment and engaging family support to women’s economic participation.

Kajal Ilmi, founder and CEO of Aviom India Housing Finance, said women culturally seem to have a very complex relationship with the understanding of money management and finance.

“To enable women-led development, creating that understanding among women across socio-economic strata must be at the fulcrum of change,” she said.

Ilmi said promoting and supporting women’s financial literacy is a must for financial institutions to create a sustainable social impact channelled through micro-finance and women’s entrepreneurship.

With inputs from PTI

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