The "reinforced concrete roof” the hours are numbered, it is about to be definitively demolished. No gender gap will take away any more women the opportunity to be there, to decide, to impose oneself and to impose alternative paths never explored up to now. It's time to change pace. This is the underlying goal #Women4Digital, a project born from the intuition of Laura Rovizzi, CEO of Open Gate Italia, a consultancy company specializing in institutional relations.
#Women4Digital: "The challenge is to ask to be there"
The event, sponsored by the Lazio Region, was dedicated to female leadership and took place at the WeGil Cultural Hub in Rome Trastevere. It was an initiative that had the objective of highlighting the importance of women's contribution to the digital transformation in progress and the obstacles to be removed for an increasingly active participation of women in building our digital future. “The search for experiences and digital leadership of many women. To find, one must seek."
"The challenge is to ask to be there. We must have the courage to ask to be in those areas where the decision of power takes place. Not the power per se, but TO BE ABLE TO DO,” says Open Gate.
Over the years there have certainly been appointments dedicated to the role of women and the importance of obtaining recognition, but Women4digital has changed "step", giving the floor to local and national female leaders on the topics (digital agendas, cybersecurity, ultrabroadband, telecommunications market) that already see them as protagonists and managers in the field.
Digital Agendas
“We have an issue to solve all together, at least at the national-system level: the digital divide. There should be a digital constitution to help people understand that there are rights, but there are also duties". That's how it starts Layla pavone, Head of the Board of Technological Innovation and Digital Transformation of the Municipality of Milan, during the first round table #Women4 Digital Agendas. Specifically, it was discussed Digital Agenda e Open Data: the European challenge on data interoperability; the transition from smart cities to smart regions; and also of the relationship between digital sustainability and the environmental impact of technology.
Le ICT technologies at the service of innovation, progress and economic growth, the step-by-step process which, with "Europe 2020", has redefined the borders and growth objectives of the EU. With the Italian Digital Agenda, Italy fits into this context in turmoil, considerably unstable and characterized by evident imbalances between the TLC and over-the-top digital "industries".
The transformation of municipalities and regions into "smart territories" to increase the quality of services and the safety of citizens is the greatest effort and the most complicated goal to achieve, but as he underlined Francesca Murru, Director of the Digital Agenda Service of the Sardinia Region, “we are mainly concerned with spreading the culture of innovation, federating the municipalities of the region and making sure that they too promote innovation in turn. The role of women in this area is fundamental because they put that extra something into their activities, passion and perseverance. There digital transformation it passes through people, so the most important challenge is to promote cultural change because transformation also means sacrifice and commitment, abandoning the old for the new. Working on the culture of innovation is the first step in reaching the pre-established objectives”.
Cyber leaders and the role of the National Cyber Security Agency
The innovations deriving from Law 109/2021, containing urgent provisions on cybersecurity, definition of the national cybersecurity architecture and establishment of the National Cybersecurity Agency, the objectives of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (Pnrr), the strengthening of infrastructure related to the country's cyber protection, the challenges of cyber security for companies, were some of the topics discussed during the second session focused on cybersecurity.
Riccardo Porcu – General Directorate of Innovation and IT Security of the Sardinia Region, professor at the University of Sassari – moderator of the second round table #Women4Cybersecurity collected the testimonies of authoritative experts in the sector. Nunzia Ciardi, Deputy Director General of the National Cybersecurity Agency specifies that “there is still a very strong gender gap. The women who approach this matter and who work in this area are still a small number. Moreover, one of the Agency's tasks in stimulating the growth of professionalism is also to reduce this gap, which is penalizing for women and for the country, because all contributions are needed”.
"The National Cybersecurity Agency was born only a year ago, but it is already working hard on a whole series of very important issues for our country, starting from the country's resilience that the institutions must somehow take care of and ensure" .
Examples of professionals eager to implement that change resulting from years of struggles, defeats and "power games" of a macho generation now at the end of the line.
The telco market and the impacts of digitalisation
In the third table '#Women4UltraBroadband - the impacts of the digitization on the market, the Government's plans for ultra-broadband: status, critical issues, opportunities and role of the regions; the adoption of BUL services and the impact on demand; sector structures and new market regulation models.
For Rovizzi “the goal of the meeting is to count and see who are the women involved in the main areas at the center of today's meeting. From the Public Administration to the world of data and IT security up to those engaged in activities that form part of the fourth pillar of the Agenda's objective, i.e. the construction of ultra-broadband infrastructure, both fixed and mobile, and data management. I strongly wanted this event above all to try not to forget that this part of the world cannot only be inserted in the context of institutions or companies as a representation, let's say of gender, but there is also a job that these people are doing and I I want it to be recognized today. One thing is for sure: women work really hard to achieve the goals they set for themselves”.
Ad Enrico Onorati, Councilor for Equal Opportunities of the Lazione Region, the task of closing the works "Today is an important occasion, because we are invited to discuss the concepts of gap and divide, gender in the digital world, which often find a common cultural matrix daughter of fear, of the scarce propensity to network, of the reluctance to change, which in any case must be unhinged. Promoting actions that underline the ability of women to know how to be fully inserted in social and professional contexts, claiming their role and being able to aspire to central and top positions, must be a commitment not only of the institutions but of each of us, starting from the assumption that small actions put together can make the difference and be the ground on which to hinge system actions.”