The Future is Female: Celebrating International Women's Day 2026
Every day is women’s day, but the date 8th March carries a special significance: it’s International Women’s Day (IWD). Over time, this date has come to mark a global day to acknowledge the social, economic, cultural, digital and political achievements of women – a catalyst for change and a celebration at the same time. Today, 8 March serves as a reminder that equality is a key driver to sustainable economic growth and the digital transformation – priorities reflected in the Digital Decade targets of the European Commission.
The need for an international women's day: still here
International Women’s Day has transformed into a global movement since its first edition in 1911. This year, IWD has a milestone to celebrate – 115 years of collective efforts to advance equal opportunities and empowering women across countries and of all ages. Throughout Europe, thousands of organisations, institutions, and citizens celebrate the day by highlighting initiatives that promote equal participation and access to opportunities – especially in fast-evolving fields like the area of digital technologies.
Data from the World Economic Forum’s 2025 Global Gender Gap Report shows that no economy has yet achieved full gender parity. At this current rate of progress, the report estimates it will take over a century (or roughly, 5 generations from now), to reach full gender parity. Women in Tech estimates that it will take 122 years and 338 days to close the economic gender gap.
Searching for a balance: towards digital inclusion for all
The number of women entering the workforce continues to grow, rising to 41.2% in 2024 with notable gains in traditionally male-dominated sectors. At the same time, employed women are still concentrated in lower-paying industries and in lower-paid occupations (i.e. education, healthcare). Improving the balance between men and women contributes to addressing skills and talent shortages, closing pay gaps, and ensuring resilience in the face of technological change and demographic shifts.
Women largely outperform men in tertiary education, but they remain underrepresented both in the workforce and in leadership roles: just 29.5% of tertiary-educated senior managers worldwide are women. The European Council’s Gender Equality Strategy 2024-2029 tackles this directly – and equality is embedded in a range of EU actions and priorities. The EU Digital Decade imagines a world in which 20 million ICT specialists live and work in Europe by 2030 – but also one in which, ideally, women make up a large percentage of. Women represent more than half of the EU population, yet they account for only around one in five ICT specialists (around 19–20%), and just one in three STEM graduates across the Union.
Empowering women to go further: a joint effort
Efforts to boost the ratio of women working in ICT and tech across EU and national levels have bridged parts of this gap. The Women in Digital (WiD) Index is a composite indicator designed to measure and track gender equality in the ICT and digital sector across European Union Member States and selected benchmarking countries. Recognising that achieving gender equality when it comes to digital leadership requires addressing barriers and gaps at every stage of the pipeline, from foundational STEM education all the way to senior executive roles, the index adopts a pipeline approach, following women’s participation from STEM education through to leadership positions in the ICT sector.
The Girls Go Circular program offers digital and entrepreneurial skills training to girls aged 14-19 across Europe, aiming to train tens of thousands of students with their online learning platform and having already reached 45,000+ students. The Tech Talks 4 Girls initiative in Luxembourg introduces girls aged 9–15 to programming, robotics, and digital creativity through hands-on workshops and mentoring sessions.
Celebrating women's achievements: EDSA 2026
Since March 2024, the Digital Skills and Jobs Platform hosts the Women4Cyber Network, a collaborative effort between the European Commission and the Women4Cyber Foundation, uniting skilled women in cybersecurity from various sectors and expertise levels.
Finally, there’s room for celebration too in the area of digital inclusion for all. The 2026 edition of the European Digital Skills Awards (EDSA) – closing on 20 March 2026 – includes a “Women in ICT” category, dedicated to awarding projects aimed at boosting the number of women in ICT.
Got a project in mind? Head over to our dedicated page and help us spread the word.
