Hoboken, Belgium: Girls’ Day in Hoboken
Women are well represented in careers such as medicine, law and business. But when it comes to engineering and technology it’s a different story. For example, men make up 87% of technology professionals while only 13% are women.
One way to help correct this imbalance is to get girls interested in technology at an early age. That was the approach behind Girls’ Day 2010.
Organised in Belgium, this joint initiative brought together a school, a science centre and 25 technology companies, with support from the government agency for equal opportunities. For the second year running, 11- and 12-year-old girls were invited to visit technology companies.
Umicore Precious Metals Refining in Hoboken received around 30 girls, including daughters of employees. Guided by female staff members, the girls toured the site and learned how mobile phones are processed to recycle the precious metals they contain. The girls also got to do some hands-on work building a luminous jewellery box to take home.
Umicore Precious Metals Refining in Hoboken received around 30 girls, including daughters of employees