What Gives Me Hope?

BY SABINE VAN EGERAAT

As a FutureWomenX Alumna, I am proud to be part of this extraordinary group of women. The wisdom, inspiration and joy I have experienced with many of you are priceless. I am honored to share some of my own reflections with all of you on hope.

I’ve always had a passion for learning & development, from the first training company I founded in 2002 to the AI infused learning platform that we have developed in the past years. Developing content that is AI infused is a journey, to say the least. But it also brings us a lot of new insights.

We need women in technology - their input is crucial for successful programs and products. And I believe that women can thrive in this space when given the right opportunities and guidance.

Through the Amsterdam University, we collaborate with young women. We provide them an assignment and mentorship, and they provide us with their bright brains. The power of this partnership gives me hope, and inspired us to do more with innovation and technology for gender equality. 

We put our money where our mouth is! 

We have invested in a company that supports women tech founders in Sub Saharan Africa. We have also initiated a European funded project with schools in the Netherlands, Belgium and Greece to support young girls to create innovative content themselves. They are getting familiar with gamification, digital storytelling and design thinking very early on, which helps them to choose for a technology career if they want to.

 I hope that technology can narrow the gap and foster gender equality. I hope to see the young girls and women working in our projects becoming FutureMakers in their own lives and careers. 

Hope is not just optimism or wishful thinking, it is a practice that asks us each to take steps (big or small) toward that which we want to see. The potential of our FutureWomenX collective power and action is immense. So I want to leave you with a question and a challenge: 

Where could you make a difference and support women and girls with practical and inclusive information about and opportunities to co-create in technology and innovation?