EQUALS at CSW70: Advancing Women’s Participation in Digital Public Life

13 March 2026 – New York: At the seventieth session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW70), the EQUALS Global Partnership hosted a side event, “Women’s Participation in Digital Public Life: From Commitments to Systems that Deliver,” bringing together representatives from governments, international organizations, civil society and the private sector to examine how digital systems increasingly shape women’s participation, leadership and voice in public life.

Opening the discussion, Ms Ursula Wynhoven, ITU Representative to the United Nations, presented the renewed vision of EQUALS, which is now structured around three interconnected workstreams - Emerging Tech for Inclusion, Safe and Inclusive Digital Spaces, and Digital Skills and Leadership Pathways - emphasizing the need to move beyond access-focused approaches toward systemic change. These pillars aim to ensure that women and girls are not only connected to technology, but also enabled to shape, govern and lead within digital ecosystems. She further highlighted the partnership’s ambition to empower 100 million women and girls to actively contribute to the digital economy by 2035, through coordinated action across stakeholders.

“Today, participation in public life increasingly is happening online… This raises an important question: who gets to participate in this digital public life and who is left out? Because when participation shifts online, the digital divide becomes a participation divide.” she noted.

Ms Jayathma Wickramanayake, Senior Policy Advisor at UN Women, underlined that digital transformation must be anchored in global commitments on gender equality and human rights. She stressed that online violence and exclusion risk undermining women’s participation in democratic processes, noting that “digital spaces are now central arenas where visibility, influence and civic engagement are negotiated.”

UK Government's work on participation and leadership in the digital sector

Delivering the keynote intervention, H.E. Mr Simon Thomas, Ambassador of the United Kingdom to the United Nations General Assembly, outlined national efforts to strengthen women’s participation and leadership in the digital sector.

He highlighted initiatives including targeted digital skills programmes, support for women innovators, and regulatory approaches to online safety.

“…when women and girls are excluded from the digital sector, the entire world loses out on talent, on innovation and on economic growth, and it's not just the right thing to do. It's absolutely essential for building resilient, inclusive digital societies that we all want to build.” he stated.

Ambassador Thomas also emphasized the importance of international cooperation to address technology-facilitated gender-based violence and emerging risks linked to artificial intelligence.

Three System Perspectives on Women’s Participation

The session explored participation in the digital age through three system lenses aligned with EQUALS workstreams.

Safe and Inclusive Digital Spaces

Dr Anna Cody, Sex Discrimination Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission, highlighted the rapid rise of technology-facilitated gender-based violence and the importance of regulatory approaches grounded in “safety-by-design.”

From a diplomatic perspective, Mr Bart De Wolf, Deputy Permanent Representative of Belgium to the United Nations, underscored that unsafe digital environments can silence women’s voices and weaken democratic discourse. He called for human-rights-based governance frameworks that treat online safety as foundational digital infrastructure.

Providing an evidence-based operational perspective, Ms Christine Heckman, Global Technical Lead for Gender-Based Violence in Emergencies at UNICEF, shared data on the growing prevalence of online harassment and exploitation affecting adolescent girls and women in crisis contexts. She stressed the need for scalable digital safety interventions co-created with affected communities.

Emerging Technologies and Inclusion

Addressing the governance dimension of digital transformation, Ms Megan O’Neill, Director for UN and International Organizations at Microsoft, emphasized that women’s participation in the design and oversight of AI systems is essential to ensuring fairness, accountability and inclusive innovation.

She highlighted responsible AI as a critical entry point for interdisciplinary leadership and noted that decisions being made today on transparency, safety and standards will shape future participation in digital public life.

Digital Skills and Leadership Pathways

Focusing on skills and empowerment, Ms Daisy Wachira, Field Programmes and Development Manager at Women Worldwide Web, examined why digital skills initiatives sometimes fail to translate into leadership outcomes.

She stressed the importance of holistic approaches combining technical training with mentorship, confidence-building and access to real economic and civic opportunities, giving the example of the EQUALS Her Digital Skills Programme.

A Reality Check from Practice

A dedicated “Reality Interruption” segment featured Ms Hiqmat Sungdeme Saani, Founder and CEO of Paahibu Space in Ghana and  ITU160 Gender Champion, who shared grassroots insights on the barriers women face in accessing meaningful digital participation.

Her intervention highlighted how social norms, affordability constraints and platform dynamics can limit women’s agency despite growing connectivity, calling for more context-sensitive approaches in global digital inclusion strategies.

Looking Ahead

The discussion reinforced the importance of coordinated multistakeholder action to ensure that digital transformation advances gender equality rather than reinforcing existing divides.

Through EQUALS 2.0, partners will continue to collaborate across policy, skills development, technology governance and digital safety initiatives, with upcoming engagement opportunities including International Girls in ICT Day 2026  and the WSIS Forum 2026 and AI for Good Global Summit 2026.

You can watch the full recording of the session on UN Web TV here.