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Female Entrepreneurship and Employability in the Digital Era: The Case of Greece

Given the increasing demand of skilled workers in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector during the upcoming years in the European labour market, as well as the digital gap of Greece to the European average, as a result of the ongoing economic crisis, led us to search for innovative ways of dealing with the current situation, following the scientific perspective. Inclusion of an increasing proportion of the Greek population in the ICT sector could result in a reversal of the uncomfortable situation in Greece.  

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of ICT on women’s employability and entrepreneurship, as well as on career prospects in managerial positions in Greece, in order to map the existing situation, identify needs, and suggest training routes. Data from 1035 women were collected, via questionnaires and interviews, regarding ICT skills’ benefits on female employability and entrepreneurship. As revealed by the findings, although women believe that ICT skills are among the most crucial factors of success in the 21st century, however, they state that they feel underrepresented in the digital era.

 

You can read the full article  here

EU Prize for Women Innovators

Background

Achieving a Union of Equality that promotes gender equality in all spheres of life, is one of the priorities of the European Commission. The Commission is working with Member States and countries associated to Horizon Europe to overcome the barriers to women entrepreneurship.

First launched in 2011, the EU Prize for Women Innovators was created to raise awareness of the need for more female entrepreneurs and create role models for women and girls.

The prize is awarded every year to talented women entrepreneurs from across the EU and Associated Countries, who have founded a successful company and brought innovation to market. The prize is managed by the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency, and the winners are chosen by an independent expert jury.

The ninth edition of the EU Prize for Women Innovators

The ninth edition of the EU Prize for Women Innovators closed on Thursday 18 August 2021, with a record 277 applications submitted.

Women from 39 different countries applied for the prize, from across the EU and countries associated to the Horizon Europe programme for research and innovation.

A total of 41 applications came from the EU13 group of countries that have joined the EU since 2004, up from 23 the previous year. A further 28 applications were submitted by women in Associated Countries, including from Ukraine, Georgia and the Western Balkans.

The highest number of applications this year came from France, Spain, Germany and Portugal with 37, 32, 22 and 21 proposals respectively.

Eligible applications will now be evaluated from September through November. The final shortlist of finalists will be published in November, and the winners will be announced in December, at the European Innovation Council Summit.

In addition, the second call for proposals for the Women TechEU programme remains open until 4 October 2022. This year, up to 130 deep-tech start-ups led by women will qualify for funding and business acceleration services to grow into tomorrow’s female deep tech leaders.

Source: https://eic.ec.europa.eu/

What does a boss look like

Ιn our everyday life, we’re faced with thousands of images.
They stare at us from billboards, magazine covers, TV commercials, product packaging, movie posters, and celebrities’ social media accounts. Many of these images contain messages that only reach us on an unconscious level.

They can be messages about gender: how we’re supposed to be, dress and act in order to be seen as normal, attractive, and ‘real’ men and women. But also messages about other norms: what a normal family, body, or skin color looks like – or the expected boss, preschool teacher, prime minister, or office cleaner, for that matter.

Images show us what’s possible. After all, you can’t be what you can’t see. Images can exclude people, by never showing some groups at all, or only portraying them as deviations from the norm. Images can cement narrow gender roles that limit all of
us – girls and boys, men and women, and those who don’t identify with any of these categories, but images can also do the opposite.

When done right, images can include and mirror all people, not just those who fit into the norm in society. And images can tickle our imagination When it comes to what we can do with our lives, and who we can become.

We are not set in stone.