Digital Synergy for empowering women: the official launch of WomenPower Platform
With the aim of promoting social change and enhancing the participation of women in society, the Cyprus Interaction Lab of the Cyprus University of Technology has launched WomenPower, the winning project in the category “Women and Dialogue” of the Mahallae program (funded by the UNDP). The We-Me platform is implemented as part of the Mahallae Challenges, supported and funded by UNDP-ACT. The ultimate goal of the platform is to strengthen the voice of women, allowing for greater participation in economic, political, and social activity and the establishment of equal opportunities.
A synergy of modern technologies helps strengthen the voice of young women through the development of a community of mentors and apprentices. The Womenpower platform will be open to different generations of women, allowing young women to receive support from women with more experience. WomenPower is aimed mainly at women working in academia, business and healthcare; other areas will be added to the platform at a later stage.
Women earn, on average, less than men. Despite the high legislative support for equal pay, this does not appear to be applied anywhere. Moreover, the gender gap between men and women is not limited to wage inequality, but also reflects a broader and on-going inequality on a social, political and professional level. The limited participation of women in decision-making processes creates an urgent need to strengthen the voice of women and eliminate the gender gap. Raising women’s awareness and support with projects like WomenPower is essential to enhance and strengthen the voice of women.
The project is coordinated by the Cyprus Interaction Lab of the Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts, Cyprus University of Technology (Antigoni Parmaxi, PhDcand., Dr. Andri Ioannou, Assistant Professor, Christina Vasiliou, PhDcand., and George Lambrou, Interaction Designer). It also includes academics from the Department of Hotel and Tourism Management (Dr. Maria Kapardis, Associate Professor of Accounting, Chairman of the Equality committee of CUT) and the Department of Nursing (Dr. Christiana Kouta, Assistant Professor, Vice President of the Equality committee of CUT) as well as Communications Specialist (Rachel Despina Chrysostomou). The project has the support of other international organizations, including the Association for Computing Machinery on Women (ACM-W, ACM-W Cyprus).
Womenpower plans to host its first Womenpower Fair (goo.gl/B9Q1Wa) on April 29th, 2015. During the Fair, women from the fields of academia, politics, and businesses will share their experiences regarding challenges and successes they have faced and the diverse paths to success, and will address the glass ceiling as well as offer lessons for personal development. During the event, there will also be an official presentation of the platform.
Visit us at: www.womenpowerproject.eu
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For more information about the project please contact us at: womenpower@www.cyprusinteractionlab.com
Download the invitation in PDF format.