Girl Can Do exhibition explores neoliberal feminism, gender digital inequalities, and digital inclusion programmes aiming to empower girls to ‘break into tech’.

 

Globally, there are 250 million fewer women online than men. Girls (including non-binary people) are (1) less likely to proactively use and create digital technologies; (2) more likely to be underrepresented and misrepresented by/in digital technologies (e.g., AI bias); (3)  more likely to be victims of digital violence (e.g., online hate, revenge porn).

 

Girls with women with multiple identities (e.g., LBTQI community, ethnic minority, indigenous) are particularly targeted online through discrimination and hate speech. 

 

Girls’ digital inclusion programmes (e.g., girls coding workshops) play a crucial role in the efforts to bridge the ‘digital gender divide’. However, some of the programmes utilise or/and replicate neoliberal feminist narratives indicating that girls ought to lift themselves out of digital poverty. Slogans such as ‘yes, you can’, ‘if you can dream it, you can be it, or ‘code your way into the future’ put girls as neoliberal subjects – can do girls - whose key responsibility is to become the best [digital] versions of themselves. 

 

This exhibition calls out some of the tech-related toxic-positivity as well instances of aspirational neoliberal feminism in the sector. 'Girl Can Do' aims to put a spotlight on structural inequalities, sexism and misogyny in the tech industry, gender-based [digital] violence, and AI bias.