While her contributions are vast, I can’t help but imagine how much she may have impacted society had she been properly educated. And then I begin to think about how important it is to recognize the movements and groups that educate and offer opportunities to women.
Arduino and Raspberry Pi, for instance, are a single-board microcontroller and a single-board computer, respectively, that provide low-cost options to teach programming. Because of this access to computing materials, women have developed numerous applications and learned the craft of programming.
Imagine what women can develop when given resources of this caliber.
Imagine what women can develop when given resources of this caliber.
And it doesn't stop at just providing skills, but also encouragement.
The Girl Effect is a movement that aims to grasp the potential of women and drive massive resources toward them so they can help change the world. Consisting of 508 girls living in poverty and 25 of the world's leading development organizations, it is dedicated to improving education, health, economic security and citizenship for impoverished women.
The ambition and actions of girls is what we need so all women can make great strides in developing themselves and in educating their peers in science, technology, engineering and math.
You can also see a glimpse of the global future of women’s education with BBOXX, which brings electricity and light to Africa with low-cost equipment distributed by Africans for Africans. Just having access to light at home will fundamentally change the education level in some of the poorest nations in the world and open to access to schooling to women.
Barriers to women’s access to technology and education are coming down, which is paving the way for women to have a significant influence on the future of innovation. Just this year, Abigail Cohen, along with her partner Andrew Brimer, won the IEEE Presidents’ Change the World Competition with their Low-Cost Spirometer, a wireless tool to measure the amount of air channeling through the lungs. This machine has dropped the price point from $1,000 to $100 and can help address the rising cost of chronic respiratory diseases worldwide.
If given the proper tools, women have the power to drive the development of technologies that we can’t even conceive of today. I’m confident that we will be celebrating another great woman in 2188, like we are Ada on her day.
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