Women's Day

As countries make bigger investments in their innovation ecosystems, there is an opportunity to ensure that those systems go beyond closing gender gaps, ...

Today, women represent a large segment of tech consumers driving preferences in product, service, and process ideation – yet innovation ecosystems are missing a golden opportunity, and assuming a large risk, by remaining [exclusive of women and gender-diverse groups](https://civicscience.com/why-you-should-care-about-what-a-woman-wants-from-healthcare-to-tech/). While gender equality in the labour market remains a long way off, there are simple ways that employers can help to address gender imbalance right now. Online learning can make access to education and skills more equal, and remote work can make access to jobs and career advancement more equal too. At Coursera, we're seeing firsthand how online learning can reduce the gender gap in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. The [Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream](https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2022/03/10/coursera-and-milken-center-for-advancing-the-american-dream-launch-a-new-tuition-free-academy/?sh=5b28a782405f) also offers pathways for scholarship recipients to earn credit toward a bachelor’s degree when they complete a certificate. The pandemic accelerated the adoption of online learning and remote work, which can address many of the barriers women face in traditional education and workplaces. Innovation ecosystems can help bridge this gap by bridging access to funding products and services that fit the profile and needs of women-led ventures. This is imperative to drive and scale systems change and sustain the momentum towards gender-inclusive innovation ecosystems. Inclusive design: Innovation products, services and technologies can better reflect the diverse needs and preferences of communities instead of deepening gender biases. This can be done by conducting user research and placing women and gender-diverse people at the centre during testing throughout the development cycle, designing without assumptions of gender roles or preferences, checking for bias, and building gender-diverse design teams. They are key spaces where meaningful engagements between people, resources, institutions, and infrastructure lead to the advancement of ideas, processes, and technologies for all fields of life - from food systems, to health, and the environment. To turn these insights into concrete action and national progress, we have developed the