Connecting Women in Digital International Women’s Day Call to Action for Europe’s Digital Future
9th March 2026, Brussels, Belgium – Connecting Women in Digital, hosted an International Women’s Day event bringing together 80 people attending in-person and over 250 online participants from across Europe. The forum featured high-profile speakers including June Lowery-Kingston, DG CNECT, European Commission; Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy; Elena Sancho Murillo, Member of the European Parliament; Liubba El Hadi Hamed and Brendan Rowan, Connecting Women in Digital project coordinators and our Managing Consultants; Ruth Martinez-Lopez Thematic Working Group 1 lead and Simona Ramanauskaitė Thematic Working Group 2 lead.
The discussions highlighted the urgent need to fully integrate women into Europe’s digital economy, explored barriers, shared evidence, and showcased initiatives aimed at ensuring women’s representation in ICT, AI, robotics, cybersecurity, and leadership.
Henna Virkkunen opened the day pointing out that women make up more than half of Europe’s population but only 19% of ICT specialists. Europe’s future cannot be built with only part of our talent, STEM could add up to €16 billion to Europe’s GDP each year if women were fully included.
“Europe’s future depends on people and that future can not be built with only part of our talent. If we want to have a competitive resilient and innovative digital Europe women must be fully involved.” Henna Virkkunen – Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy.
Leaky pipelines and unequal pay: the barriers that persist
Despite a 94% increase in ICT specialists, only 1 in 5 is female. Women drop out at multiple points along the digital career path. Addressing the leaky pipeline isn’t just about getting girls interested in STEM, it’s about creating sustained support throughout education and early careers and even as women enter digital roles, pay disparity remains. Elena Sancho Murillo highlighted that women in the digital sector earn nearly 20% less than men, that’s way transparency in remuneration is critical if Europe wants to make gender equality more than a policy statement.
From policy to practice
Member states adopted the Women in Digital Ministerial Declaration in 2019, pledging to remove structural barriers and promote non-discriminatory workplaces. Yet as Ruth Martinez-Lopez emphasised, the path from policy to classroom is fragmented, evidence shows that early engagement in ICT is poorly tracked, and teacher competence varies widely. Europe has frameworks, but turning ambition into measurable progress requires stronger implementation.
The importance of starting early was emphasised, pre-primary and early childhood interventions, combined with gender-inclusive teaching and micro-credentials, can link classroom learning to long-term careers.
Simona Ramanauskaitė explained that barriers to leadership are both internal and external from perceived readiness and strategic exposure to organisational culture and promotion structures. Men need to participate in the change, forming alliances to dismantle entrenched norms and create an inclusive innovation ecosystem.
Looking forward
Connecting Women in Digital forum has been launched in June 2025 and now it connects over 300 experts and serves as a point of connection and communication but also as a tool of reflection and knowledge of Best Practices. Sharing best practices, mentoring, and fostering visibility strengthens Europe’s digital resilience. Europe must tackle pay gaps, pipeline leaks, and cultural barriers head-on, the opportunity is massive, but the stakes are even higher: without full participation, Europe risks losing billions in GDP and years of innovation.