Empowering young girls and raising awareness to them that they can be STAR (Scientists,
Tech Experts, Astronauts, Researchers) through art based activities that engage them in
digital technologies and other STEM related topics.

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<p>
Engaging girls early can bridge the gender digital gap at an early age and we want to act on the mitigation of these biases and stereotypes. Using Art, we hope to increase the participation of girls and women in these areas of expertise, by getting them excited about these areas and keeping them aware that they can be and do whatever they want. The sky is not the limit and neither is their gender.
</p>
<p>
The OECD has studies showing the role of gender stereotypes in these careers where young students are as good as boys in hard sciences but still don't choose this path because of bias and stereotypes. 
</p>
<p>
The Women are STAR project intends to start the integration of digital technologies in women’s and girls’ empowerment strategies. Also, it will create a win-win situation offering teachers and schools activities related to careers and gender equality for free in exchange for the collection of data by teachers of kids' perception while doing the activity.
</p>
<p>
This data will be an important tool to understand what are the gender data gaps in that environment and develop an educational toolkit fostering girl’s inclusion in the digital world. There is also a possibility to develop a policy brief to use the results of the survey and create recommendations targeting the achievement of SDGs.
</p>

<h2>Main Goal of the Project</h2>
<p>
The goal is to foster the mitigation of gender bias and stereotypes about professions and technologies and to stimulate children to know more about women “forgotten” in history and measure gender stereotypes in young students (from 05 – 10 depending on where the schools will be located) regarding STEM and ICT careers, whilst raising awareness to educators and children about the gender digital gap between girls and boys since an early age.</p>

<h3>Actions</h3>
<ul>
<li>The project needs one artist committed to do all the drawings (around 10).</li>
<li>The project will need volunteers to research about “curious” facts regarding women in STEM/ICT careers.</li>
<li>The project will need volunteers to research about gender unconscious bias and stereotypes that are present in young kids (UNESCO reports, OECD PISA report and UNICEF reports are already a great source of reliable data in this matter).</li>
<li>The project will need volunteers interested in qualitative research to help design the survey.</li>
<li>The project will need volunteers available to reach schools and teachers interested in taking this activity and participating in the survey.</li>
<li>The project will need volunteers to help translate the survey in graphics and other types to illustrate the data collected.</li>
<li>The project will need volunteers to design activities and other solutions for the educational toolkit.</li>
<li>The project will need volunteers in the communication department to work on the social media campaign.</li>
<li>The project will need volunteers in the advocating department to help draft the policy brief.</li>
<li>The project will need volunteers to research and write the posts about STAR/ICT women from world history (not famous ones like Marie Curie, but more like Hedy Lamarr or Dr. Kati Kariko).</li>
</ul>

<h3>Phases of the Project</h3>

<h4>Phase 01 – Designing the survey and activity + connect with stakeholders.</h4>
<p>
The first phase intends to design the activity that will be carried out and the survey that educators will reply to. The activity will consist of a series of colouring drawings (around 10) representing women as STAR (scientists, Tech experts, Astronauts, Researchers) and they can be inspired or not in real women. While doing this activity, the educator will collect the impression of the kids around possible unconscious bias and stereotypes such as ( e.g.“video games are for boys and so are computers” / “Men are astronauts”). The goal is to understand if there is a reasoning behind these thoughts and what could be the potential trigger of these unconscious biases. At the same time kids are doing the activity, educators will be invited to share some “curious” facts around the drawings (e.g. The fact that women can get periods in space was incredibly used as an argument that women shouldn't be astronauts just because NASA did not know how to deal with it).
</p>

<h4>How volunteers can participate in phase 01</h4>

<ol>
<li>The project needs one artist committed to do all the drawings (around 10).</li>
<li>The project will need volunteers to research about “curious” facts regarding women in STEM/ICT careers.</li>
<li>The project will need volunteers to research about gender unconscious bias and stereotypes that are present in young kids (UNESCO reports, OECD PISA report and UNICEF reports are already a great source of reliable data in this matter).</li>
<li>The project will need volunteers interested in qualitative research to help design the survey.</li>
<li>The project will need volunteers available to reach schools and teachers interested in taking this activity and participating in the survey.</li>
 </ol>

<h4>Phase 02 – Execution Phase + design of educational toolkit.</h4>

<p>
The second phase intends to execute the activity with the support of the educators contacted in the first phase. A Deadline will be set for the activity to be implemented and the collection of the results. Still in the second phase, an educational toolkit explaining the importance of closing the gender digital gap will be designed and it will be sent to the participants. The participants will be contacted later on for feedback and possible updates that the toolkit might need.
</p>

<h4>How volunteers can participate in phase 02:</h4>
<ol>
<li>The project will need volunteers to help translate the survey in graphics and other types to illustrate the data collected.</li>
<li>The project will need volunteers to design activities and other solutions for the educational toolkit.</li></ol>

<h4>Phase 03 – Closure and Social Media Campaign.</h4>

<p>The third phase intends to create a month-long campaign for the International Girls in ICT Day to raise awareness and tell the story of 30 women “forgotten” in history. The posts on ED social media should tell their brief story, achievements and bridge this with the impact girls and women still face in the 21st Century.</p>

<p>On the 27/05/23 it is expected to launch the toolkit and share the data collected through a policy brief advocating against the perpetuation of those biases and stereotypes.</p>

<h4>How volunteers can participate in phase 03</h4>
<ol>
<li>The project will need volunteers in the communication department to work on the social media campaign.</li>
<li>The project will need volunteers in the advocating department to help drafting the policy brief.</li>
<li>The project will need volunteers to research and write the posts about STAR/ICT women from world history (not famous ones like Marie Curie, but more like Hedy Lamarr or Dr. Kati Kariko).</li>
</ol>


Our womens rights department is dedicated to engaging men to lead the fight to eliminate gender-based violence. We are raising awareness of the global problem of Femicide through preserving the memories of victims and making thier stories known.

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