As women worldwide recently celebrated International Women’ s Week , the President of the University of Port Harcourt Women Association (UPWA), Dr. Udeme Georgewill Owunari, has called on members of the association to utilise the enormous potentials in the digital space.
Owunari, who made the call during the celebration of the International Women’s Week in Port Harcourt said the good fight of lending helping hands to others is sacrosanct.
She noted that as a way of achieving this , UPWA members were enrolled to improve their knowledge of digital innovation and technological advancement which, she said, would create jobs for the women in the future.
The wife of the Vice Chancellor of University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) further indicated that on assumption of office, UPWA women were engaged in a workshop on how to access educational platforms online in order to get certificates from reputable institutions across the globe in their comfort homes, stressing that several conferences abound which would afford them ample opportunity to improve their skills aimed at balancing their work lives with their careers.
According to her, this year’ s International Women’s Week celebration, themed : ‘Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality’ is timely and aimed at highlighting the struggle of women the world over to enable them to speak up about themselves.
She said “the role of innovation and technological advancement cannot be over-emphasised in promoting gender equality and meeting the healthy developmental needs of women and the girl child”.
According to her, “report shows that women make up half of the population of the world which portrays that fewer women have access to the internet than the men, hence the trend should be addressed”.
Owunari said via technological advancement, women can have access and share experiences, get useful advice from fellow women within Nigeria and beyond, which, according to her, has made the world a global village.
She urged women and girls, who are scared of using the digital space to have a rethink and toe the line of embracing it.
She hinted that embracing it to harness their development and build businesses and carry out research ,as well as get healthy app and fitness remain worthwhile.
Owunari also urged the women to be mindful of cyber bullying ,hacking amongst other evils associated with it ,saying it is time the authorities act fast to make digital space safer for women.