International Girls in ICT Day
Next: April 22, 2027
Tech needs girls.
The story
Where it comes from
International Girls in ICT Day was set up by the International Telecommunication Union, the UN agency for information and communication technologies. At its Plenipotentiary Conference in Guadalajara, Mexico, in October 2010, ITU's member states adopted Resolution 70 on gender equality, which called for a yearly 'Girls in ICT' day on the fourth Thursday of April, when tech companies, universities and research centres would open their doors to girls. The first was held on 28 April 2011.
How it's celebrated
Tech companies, universities, ministries and schools hold open days, workshops, mentoring and job-shadowing schemes and talks by women who work in technology, to show girls and young women what a career in the field can look like. ITU hosts a global event and gathers news of celebrations around the world. Anyone can join in by encouraging a girl they know to build, code or take something apart.
Did you know
- By 2022, more than 600,000 girls and young women had taken part in more than 12,000 Girls in ICT Day events in 195 countries.
- ITU was founded in 1865 to manage the first international telegraph networks, which makes it the oldest UN agency.
- Doreen Bogdan-Martin, elected in 2022, is the first woman to lead ITU in its history.
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- World Malaria Day · April 25, 2027
- World Intellectual Property Day · April 26, 2027
- International Design Day · April 27, 2027
- World Day for Safety and Health at Work · April 28, 2027