Increasing involvement of women in science and technology

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities. Agenda 21 recommends promoting and strengthening the role of women as full partners in the science and technology disciplines.

In the case of UNESCO this involves activities designed to overcome the obstacles to women's access to scientific and technological training and careers in science and technology. This necessitates: (a) intensification of vocational guidance in primary and secondary schools; (b) promotion and extension, through effective incentives, of access by women to careers in science and technology; (c) encouragement of women to take up scientific careers through advanced, training and retraining in various disciplines; and (d) the provision of greater opportunities for women in the fields of technology.

The Women in Computing Academic Resource (WCAR) List is a compilation of colleges and universities that have formal and/or informal programmes for encouraging/retaining women in computer science. It is an officially sponsored activity of the ACM Committee on the Status of Women. The WCAR list identifies "women-friendly" academic programmes in computer science, thereby providing female computer science students important information regarding positive encouraging environments.