The Season is part of Commissioner Gabriel’s strategy to empower women and increase their participation in the digital economy. Women’s Season will culminate in March 2019 (with International Women’s Day celebrations on 8 March) and will highlight the achievements of both modern and historical women. Find out more, and how you can participate.
The aim of Women’s Season is to spotlight women throughout history, highlight their contributions, and discuss some historical and current challenges that women still face.
It is a celebration of innovation and progress, as well as a moment to discuss future aims for the sector and provide a call to action for all in the sector to advocate for gender parity.
The season is one of collaboration - so we will be providing information on key moments for activism and involvement. Be it through Twitter chats, viral social media campaigns, petitioning, or any number of initiatives that we will share, promote and take part in.
Season Activities
On Europeana Collections, we’ll highlight the lives and achievements of historical European women in a series of editorial features (blogs, galleries, and an exhibition), including guest contributions from Europeana’s network of cultural heritage partners.
On Europeana Pro, we are running a series of profiles and interviews with leading women in the digital and GLAM sectors, highlighting their work and achievements. The series is entitled Women in Culture and Technology and will feature interviews with women from across sectors and across the world - including, tech expert and founder of DigiPippi (an organisation which bridges the gender gap in technology) Eva Fog and renowned multi-disciplinary artist Nora Al-Badri.
A series of inspiration, innovation, and insight
By going behind-the-scenes and showing women in action - be it as a work-from-home digital writer and activist, a politician, artist, or a tech entrepreneur - professional women will be given a platform to share their experiences, insights, challenges and hopes for the future of technology and culture.
Why?
Whilst bridging gender gaps may not seem as momentous as the challenges faced by our professional foremothers (see our digital exhibition Pioneers for a deeper look at this topic), the recent European Commission study ‘Women in the Digital Age’ reported a growing gap in gender parity in digital sectors of education, career and entrepreneurship.
This study highlights the continued need to publicise the contribution of women - and particularly those who inhabit spaces that are historically male-dominated.
Commissioner Gabriel said: ‘How much better would Europe be if girls and women felt empowered to dream big and aim high across professional fields from art to science? Having role models will help them build these dreams. The online exhibition I launch today in cooperation with Europeana is about pioneering women from our history whose stories are vastly different, but have one thing in common: these fearless women changed the world with their passion and hard work. Today we need to empower and inspire girls and women everywhere in Europe to innovate, discover and create especially in the digital sector. And all of us, we have a role to play.’
Dr Lily Knibbeler, Director General of the National Library of the Netherlands said: ‘Culture is all about diversity, which means that the full richness of our culture can only be embodied by full diversity in our workforce.’
Dr Jill Cousins, Director and CEO Hunt Museum said: ‘Women are often not invited to the table - I don’t think it is deliberate – but in the same way that humans tend to flock to their own tribe, if there are no women at the original table they are less likely to get invited to the future one. It will require a deliberate action to change this.’
Get involved!
- Send Europeana Women viral on International Women's Day by posting - post #IWD2019 and tag @europeanaeu to show your support (8 March).
- Join a Twitter chat. We will be discussing key topics from the Pro series. @Europeanaeu Twitter chat: follow the #womeninculturechat 15.00 CET 29 March
The digital exhibition Pioneers will publish one chapter per week starting today until International Women’s Day, 8 March. Visit the exhibition. The profile series Women in Culture and Technology publishes three profiles per week throughout March.