International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has expressed worry about gender disparities, claiming that in 2025, only 21 per cent of information and communication technology (ICT) ministers and regulators are women.

ITU, which disclosed this, added that a recent analysis of nearly 1.6 million Artificial Intelligence (AI) professionals found that women held less than 14 per cent of senior executive roles.  

The United Nations arm in charge of global communications said such disparities prevent digital transformation from fully delivering on its promise, because half of the global population is not represented in spaces where consequential decisions are made.

As such, ITU said this was the reason it launched the Network of Women Ministers and Leaders in ICT as part of its commitment to create more opportunities for women to shape the body’s shared digital future.

It explained that the network was born out of a simple but urgent idea: to close the gender digital divide, saying, “We must close the leadership gap.”

ITU Secretary-General, Doreen Bogdan-Martin, in a post, explained that as digital permeates more aspects of “our lives.”