Closing the Digital Gender Gap: The Future of Work for Girls
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The Future of Work: Closing the Digital Divide for Girls
Equipping girls and young women with the skills and experiences they need to become the architects of a diverse, inclusive and secure digital world.
Every year, girls and young women miss out on US$ 15 billion in economic opportunities because of the gender digital gap. This gap - both in digital literacy and in access to the internet - holds girls back from their learning and employment potential.
The gap is staggering: 24% of girls aged 15–19 are currently excluded from education, training, or employment—nearly double the rate of boys at 13%. This factsheet contains jarring statistics and proves the need to end the exclusion of girls and women from the global digital economy. With the right skills and opportunities, today's largest cohort of adolescent girls can become the largest generation of game changers in history. Join UNICEF's mission toward opportunity for every girl.
Bridging the Digital Divide
through Gaming & STEAM
Within the gaming industry, less than a quarter of the workforce are women, yet girls represent about 50 per cent of the world's video gamers. Innovative approaches, co-created with and for girls, in partnership with the tech and gaming industries, can shift the needle toward a more inclusive digital environment for adolescent girls.
Skills for Girls: A Future-Ready Portfolio
Building on UNICEF’s existing Skills4Girls portfolio (spanning 22 countries and reaching close to 6 million girls), the UNICEF's Game Changers Coalition is a global forum of like-minded partners committed to equipping this generation of girls with the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) skills they want and need to become coders, designers, and leaders of a more inclusive, diverse, and safer digital future.
Game Changers:
A Strategy for Tech Diversity
The UNICEF Game Changers Coalition is a unique forum where private companies, civil society organisations, governments and young leaders from around the world team up to close the gender digital gap through video games.
Educating Girls Globally for Tech & Industry Careers
Together with partners within and beyond the video gaming industry, and with girls at the core, the Coalition:
- Promotes diversity, equity and inclusion within the video gaming industry
- Supports and finance concrete, measurable actions for girls worldwide—including local skills building through UNICEF country offices
- Demystifies video gaming career pathways for girls, and inspires STEAM learning and industry careers
- Ensures girls feel represented and safe in video gaming environments
Worldwide, only 35 per cent of STEAM students in tertiary education are female. At 15 years old, twice as many boys as girls expect to become engineers, scientists and architects.
Closing the gender gaps in digital literacy, access, and experiences is the first step toward ending the exclusion of girls and women from the global digital economy.
The UNICEF Game Changers Coalition curriculum is designed to attract and retain young talent by combining the excitement of video games with the powerful STEAM skills needed to create them, such as advance coding, creativity, collaboration and problem-solving.
Three Pillars for a Secure Digital Future
The Coalition operates via three main pillars:
- Build Her Foundation
Spearhead an innovative STEAM curriculum aligned with girls’ needs and aspirations, supporting the transition from learning to earning. - Build The Game
Promote frameworks that create a safer and more inclusive gaming industry environment. - Build the Global Network
Establish mentorships, global game jams, internships, and experiential opportunities bridging the gender gap in digital skills and careers.
A two-day Game Jam event in Siem Reap, Cambodia, included 49 female students from four pilot schools and 12 young mentors competing in teams to design and pitch their own video games to a panel of judges.
Global Impact:
Reaching 1.1 Million Girls by 2027
Since its launch in 2023, the UNICEF Game Changers Coalition pilot programme has engaged over 640,000 girls, parents, and teachers in eight countries (Armenia, Brazil, Cambodia, Malaysia, Morocco, South Africa, India and Kazakhstan), building STEAM skills through practical training and in-person game jams.
Together with partners, the Coalition is set to reach 1.1 million in 12 countries by 2027.
Tech Partnerships:
Web3 and the 2025 Game Jam
In 2024, UNICEF and the Global Video Game Coalition (GVGC) formalized a partnership to expand career pathways in the video game and tech industries for adolescent girls worldwide, aiming to reach 1.1 million people across 12 countries by 2027, as part of a broader effort to equip 26 million girls with future-ready skills.
The GVGC became a foundational partner of the initiative, helping transition the Coalition from its pilot phase to its current stage of growth and scale. Members of the GVGC include Electronic Arts, Roblox, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Ubisoft, Video Games Europe and Entertainment Software Association.
In mid-2025, the Game Changers Coalition continued to grow with the addition of new partners. The crypto company Bitget joined the Coalition through its Blockchain4Her initiative, aiming to directly reach 300,000 people in 2025 and support the expansion of the STEAM curriculum to include blockchain and Web3 literacy.
The Micron Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the tech company Micron Technologies, has also partnered with UNICEF to enable the expansion of the Coalition to its eighth country of implementation, Malaysia.
The UNICEF Game Jam:
Leveling Up Digital Creativity
The first UNICEF Game Jam (August – September 2025) was a virtual celebration of creativity and digital skills through video game development.
Organized by the UNICEF Game Changers Coalition and partners, it brought together young people under 21 years old from eight participating countries: Armenia, Brazil, Cambodia, India, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Morocco, and South Africa.
You can learn more about Game Jam and discover the winners.
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