Women in business: can tech and funding shatter the glass ceiling?

Some of the most powerful and important positions in the world are held by women - Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission, Christine Lagarde at the European Central Bank, Janet Yellen as the US Treasury Secretary, and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at the World Trade Organization. They’re part of a group, showing women can be just as successful as their male counterparts in positions of power. One of the ways more women can end up in these top decision-making roles is to boost female participation in traditionally male-dominated industries.

In Europe, the organisation Stemettes is on a mission to inspire the next generation of women into careers in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) by showcasing a diversity of people working in these sectors.

The CEO and Founder, Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE, is an author and business leader. The mathematician was voted the UK’s most influential woman in tech in 2020.

"So there's quite a few things we need to do. I think the biggest lever that we have for changing this is social norms. And I think when we look at equal pay now and back in the 1960s when we had at least here in the UK, the acts that came in to ensure that. And of course, STEM is one of those spaces that you know, people are paid really well to, to work across lots of different STEM roles in STEM organisations. And so the underrepresentation of women within STEM means actually, you know, if we were better represented, we'd actually be much closer to that, to that pay parity," Dr Anne-Marie told Euronews.

The advancements in technology have increased the dangers for women worldwide, whether it's trolling, having their personal details revealed, surveillance cameras, or tracking their location, but women are