U
D

Conversation

the

01/07/13 | Uncategorized

Submit Your Best Idea For The Equal Futures App Challenge By January 19

Individuals/teams can submit their app on equalfutures.challenge.gov until January 19th, 2013 at 12:00am (EST).

By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)

Last year, President Obama announced at the UN General Assembly the Equal Futures Partnership, launched to increase women’s political participation and economic empowerment. Participating countries vow to to expand opportunities for women and girls to fully participate in public life and to drive more inclusive economic growth.

As part of the US’ efforts, the White House Council on Women and Girls is launching an app challenge: create an app that promotes civic education and/or inspires girls to serve as leaders in our democracy.

Apps competing in the Equal Futures App Challenge should do at least one of the following:

  • Educate girls about the gender gap in public leadership using publicly-available information.
  • Connect girls with role models by highlighting women in public leadership positions.
  • Teach girls about what it means to be an effective leader.
  • Empower girls to engage with their elected representatives.
  • Prepare girls to serve in government and run for office themselves.

The US commits to building on current efforts in “opening doors to quality education and high-paying career opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields” and “strengthening support for women entrepreneurs”, according to the White House Equal Futures Partnership Fact Sheet.

The US was joined in this Equal Futures Partnership by 12 other founding members (Australia, Bangladesh, Benin, Denmark, Finland, Indonesia, Jordan, the Netherlands, Peru, Senegal and Tunisia, along with the EU).

How To Apply To The Equal Futures App Challenge

Individuals/teams can submit their app on equalfutures.challenge.gov until January 19th, 2013 at 12:00am (EST). Individuals/teams should submit screenshots or video of their working app as well as a link to the app. Individuals/teams whose app will be hosted in an app store must submit the app to the store by January 19th, 2013 at 12:00am (EST). Please provide continuous access to the app, a detailed description of the app, and system requirements required to run the app.

Judges for the competition include Jocelyn Goldfein (Director of Engineering, Facebook), Anna Maria Chavez (CEO, Girl Scouts), Academy Award-Winning Actor Geena Davis (Founder, Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media), Judy Vredenburgh (President & CEO, Girls Inc.) and Jack Dorsey (Creator & Co-Founder, Twitter; Founder & CEO, Square).

For some ideas and guidance from girls themselves, check out the White House blog post on the Equal Futures App Challenge.

Women 2.0 readers: How can we break down barriers for women’s political participation and economic empowerment – as well as create more women leaders? How can we do it with an app? Let us know your ideas and thoughts in the comments below.

Angie Chang is Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of Women 2.0, a media company offering content, community and conferences for aspiring and current women innovators in technology. Our mission is to increase the number of female founders of technology startups with inspiration, information and education through our platform. Previously, Angie held roles in product management and web UI design. Angie holds a B.A. in English and Social Welfare from UC Berkeley. Follow her on Twitter at @thisgirlangie.

Editor

Editor

The Switch Editorial Team.

Straight to your inbox.

The best content on the future faces of tech and startups.

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

SHARE THIS STORY

NEW COHORT STARTS JANUARY 2024

Join the Angel Sessions

Develop strategic relationships, build skills, and increase your deal flow through our global angel group and investing course.

RELATED ARTICLES
[yarpp]