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UN Women and GCash in collaboration with Connected Women, the premier Filipino community for women’s empowerment in the digital economy, recently hosted its 2025 Women in Tech Summit, “Our Seat at the Table,” to help accelerate tech inclusion for women and girls.
‘Our Seat at the Table’ doubled as a think tank, where actionable insights were formulated to supplement the policy recommendations to support the implementation of the UN Women Gender Action Lab (GAL): Innovation for Impact, an initiative powered by the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) and supported by the Government of Australia through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).
70 influential women leaders from different industries and sectors gathered to workshop solutions and share best practices for enabling women’s economic empowerment through tech.
Her Excellency HK Yu PSM, FCPA (Aust), Australian ambassador to the Philippines, delivered the keynote address as guest of honor, highlighting three tenets that could inspire the strategies developed by the participants.
“The first thing is to give women and girls a voice [and then] create platforms like this for [those] voices to come through,” began Ambassador Yu. “The second thing is to invest in women and girls, [which] can be done at the highest level—through your companies and your government—and the individual level.”
Ambassador Yu also cited ways Australia puts gender equality at the center of diplomacy. “In everything we do, we ask the question: ‘[This should be] 50-50, and if it’s not, why not?’” The principle is used in Australian policies; for example, Australia has a target that more than 80% of development programs should effectively address gender equality.
Innovating to promote gender inclusion
To touch on the third and final tenet, Ambassador Yu shared some statistics of note: Today, women and girls are 20% less likely to have smartphones, and 28% are less likely to have access to the internet. She shared: “Another challenge for this particular set of sector leaders is [to ensure that] whatever innovation or product you come up with in your area [is] woman- and girl-friendly.”
“What are we doing to rebalance this so that we women and girls get the advantage?” asked Ambassador Yu. “I call [the solution] ‘positive bias.’ As leaders, you have the power to make a huge difference, so apply positive bias. Let’s [ensure] we achieve a world where there is true equality and where women and girls always have a seat at the table.”
Rowie Zamora, the chief strategy Officer of GCash, further set the tone for the event, reminding attendees about the innate responsibility to apply that positive bias. “Gone are the days when people are surprised that we have women tech leaders, CEOs, and public sector leaders, but we need to acknowledge that there’s still a long way [to go],” she shared. “Now the real work ahead of us is to think of the rest of the women inside and outside NCR who still need help to be part of the digital economy.”
Banding together for more significant breakthroughs
“Our Seat at the Table” centered on action-oriented solutions. The attendees participated in five thought-provoking roundtable discussions tackling today’s critical issues, facilitated by women leaders specializing in the respective topics.
These included Rosemarie Rafael, WomenBizPH chairperson and president & CEO of Airspeed, who moderated the “Digital Entrepreneurship and Business Innovation” session, and Gina Romero, the CEO & Co-Founder of Mettamatch and founder of Connected Women, who moderated the “Corporate Transformation and Professional Development” session alongside her co-facilitator Ambe Tierro, the country lead of Accenture.
Mylene Abiva, president & CEO of Felta MultiMedia, Inc., steered the discussion on “Technology and Innovation,” while Linartes Viloria, the National Project coordinator of Women in STEM Workforce Readiness and Development Programme of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Country Office for the Philippines, guided the “Education and Skills Development” session. Meanwhile, Mel Migrino, the chair, president & CEO of Women in Security Alliance Philippines, facilitated the “Online Safety and Cybersecurity” roundtable discussion.
This multi-sectoral representation allowed for every voice to be heard and for the development of holistic opportunities that address the multifaceted barriers many women face in accessing and utilizing digital technologies.
“The integration of technology in the lives of women and girls is a tool for empowerment [and simultaneously] a vehicle for societal transformation,” said Antoinette Santos, the Programme Analyst for the UN Women Gender Action Lab.
“Let us advocate for policies and programs that uplift women and bridge the gender gap,” added Santos. “Let us mentor and nurture the next generation of women leaders in technology and beyond. Let us work tirelessly toward creating a world where every woman and girl can flourish, regardless of the obstacles in her path.”
“Our Seat at the Table” culminates the global celebration of International Women’s Month in March but only marks the beginning of GCash’s mission to “Accelerate Action, Accelerate Inclusion”—a campaign that has prioritized results-oriented advocacies and tangible change in digital fintech spaces for Filipino women.
This is followed by the celebration of Women in Tech month in April of GCash, a global movement to drive awareness, recognition, and action toward greater inclusion in STEM education and the tech industry. GCash, a predominantly women-led company, is set to serve as a testament to how women can serve as catalysts for change and reiterate its commitment to an accessible, diverse, equitable, and responsive digital landscape that leaves no one behind.
