Iranian by birth, Italian by adoption. Muslim dad, Christian mom. Per Daria Majidi, entrepreneur and president of the Daxo Group, an AI and women empowerment consultancy, a complementary vision of society and culture has never been an alternative, but the only choice. After graduating from the Faculty of Information Sciences in 1986 in Pisa, when information technology was in its infancy and the Internet did not yet exist, she immediately became interested in artificial intelligence so much so that his dissertation soon became software and his first company became a subsidiary of Sant’Anna. This happened to a woman for the first time, but at that time she was too young to notice it, and did not understand that she was a pioneer in her own way.
In the meantime, he has grown, trained, informed and after a lot of experience, first as Vice President of the Confindustria of Livorno and then as Innovation Adviser of the Municipality of Livorno from 2009 to 2014, little by little realizing that there are still too few women on the message boards for their voices to be heard. Thus begins a new chapter in his life. “I have never been a committed activist. But after a lot of entrepreneurial, political and pedagogical experience at the age of 50, I realized that there are still too few women in Serie A,” says Daria, who founded the Women’s 4.0 Association with this understanding. “At first I thought that being a woman had nothing to do with it and that it was just a matter of skills, and then I realized.”
When did you experience your first prejudice?
With motherhood: I was an employer and co-founder with my husband, but 2-3 days after the birth of his daughter, he returned to work, and I remember thinking that this was not right for me or for him. And now one of our battles is precisely motherhood, which should spread longer and better, as in the countries of the north. The fact that the World Economic Forum ranks us 63rd out of 145 next to Namibia and Rwanda speaks volumes.
How can digital transformation contribute to bridging the gender gap?
In Italy, only 15% of girls graduate in computer science.. This means that those who work on the codes are mostly children who, willy-nilly, introduce gender biases, which are then reflected in our vision of the world, endlessly perpetuating stereotypes and prejudices. It is no coincidence that the word “doctor” in Google translates as “doctor” and “nurse” as a nurse. Or that if we are women, Netflix offers us preferably love movies in its catalog as a first choice. We are exposed to all this without even realizing it, for this reason investing in digital transformation can help us achieve cultural change. Hence the need to create what Giuliano Amato once defined at a conference.”social awareness”.
And how is it built?
With what I call the three C’s: skill, heart and courage. As Women 4.0, we have created a twelve-point manifesto based on four cornerstones. First, representativeness: women should be considered where you decide and where you put your money. Then education from here was born AixGirls, a project for girls conceived as a one-week tech camp in Volterra for fourth-grade girls.. And finally, leadership and women’s entrepreneurship. With this vision in my company, which used to deal only digital transformation for companies since 2018, we have provided training and empowerment courses to about 1,000 women. When years later they tell me that thanks to us they changed jobs, asked for a raise, or simply got a company car, I feel proud.
Did you mention AixGirls, a computer science and artificial intelligence campus for high school girls, what was the welcome there?
I would say excellent. We received 57 applications, but there were only 20 places. They were students from all over Italy and with different backgrounds: some from scientific higher education institutions, others from classical schools, others from vocational schools, and with them we introduced innovative education. program. In the morning, we gave lessons on hardware, software, and assistive technology and artificial intelligence in terms of bias, rights, ethics, and sustainability.. In the afternoon there were workshops and the girls had to develop software. We alternated programming experience, public speaking, and visits to the AI labs at the University of Siena. Then a wonderful community was created between professors and students, who in a few years will become our ambassadors in Italy and around the world. A degree in computer science is not necessarily required, but digital thinking is essential, no matter what profession we choose to take, or women are destined to be left out.
But what about the PNRR funds?
With our Pnrr observatory, we set out to calculate the impact it will have on the gender gap. The document says that one of the through lines of current and future investments are women, it is a pity that of the allocated 216 billion, only 1.6% is addressed directly to women. We praised the creation of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Fund, it’s a pity that both the New Startup Fund and the Women’s Business Consolidation Fund closed one day later. The political class interpreted this as a big success, but instead I say a big failure. Because if the money runs out on the same day, it means that the allocated amount was small and that the political class underestimated the phenomenon and the needs.
We have elections, what do you want from the next government that comes?
A year after the release of the funds, the Ministry of Economy and Finance estimated that only 20% of the funds could have a direct impact on women, and 80% were gender neutral. Galileo said: “If something is measurable, measure it; if not, make it measurable.” So the effort we are asking of the next government is to make every action measurable. And then we ask for stability and concreteness. Finally, a call to civil society not to delegate politics only to parties, we can also do a lot. The polis does not belong to the parties, it belongs to everyone, but we often forget about it.
Source: Elle