What a week! Congratulations to all organisations and individuals who held inspiring events in honour of International Women’s Day and who pledged to continue to #pressforprogress in the months to come. 

We were honoured to be featured in the South China Morning Post on International Women’s Day last week to discuss some of the gender issues affecting Hong Kong. Read the SCMP feature here.

We want to extend our congratulations to a former TWF summer intern and Hong Kong-raised secondary school student, Trinity Donohugh. Her internship work with our Girls Go Tech Programme inspired her to launch her own project. Trinity founded Girls for CS, a student-led initiative that launched Burmese-language podcasts to teach basic computer literacy to underprivileged students across Myanmar through local schools and charities. The initiative has since expanded to schools in Cambodia, Vietnam, India, Malawi and Zambia, operating in five languages. She recently won the Outstanding Youth Delegate Award for the 2018 Winter Youth Assembly at the United Nations.

Later this year, we will be sharing the results of our groundbreaking study on gender differences in studying STEM-related subjects among secondary school students, conducted by Dr Anita Chan and Dr Adam Cheung of the Education University of Hong Kong and sponsored by MTR Corporation. The mixed-method study – which consists of an extensive survey and in-depth focus group interviews – examines students’ attitudes and perceptions in choosing STEM subjects in both secondary school and university.

Preliminary results are concerning: both boys and girls have deeply entrenched stereotypes. They believe boys are innately better in STEM subjects than girls, and that girls significantly have less self-confidence and interest in all STEM subjects than boys. As one female student remarked: “Girls are more sensitive whereas boys are more sensible … most of the time girls can’t get it [at] first.”

We know harmful gender stereotypes start from a young age. This is why schools play a critical role. Through the Girls Go Tech Programme’s collaborative work with schools, we have seen transformative results when schools prioritise girls’ STEM education. To publicly recognise these efforts, we are introducing an exciting element into the programme: the Girls Go Tech School Awards. 

The Girls Go Tech School Awards, which are made possible with the generous support of Goldman Sachs, aim to showcase schools that excel in supporting female students’ STEM potential. We hope the awards encourage local schools to formulate gender-sensitive policies and support services. We also hope the awards raise more awareness, not just in schools but also among parents and in the wider community, of the need to cultivate an attitude, mind-set and environment that encourage girls to pursue STEM education and related careers.

Having an equal representation of women in STEM fields goes beyond just ensuring women have the same access to the fast-growing careers of the future. Increasing the number of women involved in creating technology means that the solutions and services such technology provides is more inclusive and more reflective of broader societal values. This is at the heart of our belief in boosting women’s representation in STEM.

As usual we would love to hear from you. Get in touch at Fiona.Nott@twfhk.org.