Despite over a decade of focus, women are still underrepresented in STEM fields (and positions of power and leadership). This gender gap persists at all income levels, and in fact increases as income levels rise. Only 27% of US STEM workers are women, and only 26% of data and AI workers in the top 20 economies are women. That figure drops to 15% for women engineers in the top 20 economies. And only 4% of CEOS of Fortune 500 companies are women. At a time when the world is facing dire environmental, social, health, and political situations, we're excluding half of the world's talent and ingenuity. We need more women and girls in positions of leadership—in STEM fields and beyond. We have to go beyond basic literacy and basic coding skills. We need to prepare today's girls to solve problems we can only begin to imagine. Investing in education and leadership opportunities for women is the path toward meeting humanity's biggest challenges, and we need to invest in support that extends beyond high school.

Technovation girls is a global tech education nonprofit that empowers girls to become leaders, creators and problem-solvers. Technovation's digital program platform delivers the world's largest technology entrepreneurship competition for girls ages 8-18 and develops their skills to compete in and contribute to the digital economy and emerging technologies, as well as become leaders in their communities.