Closing the gender gap starts with the stories we tell
31/03/26
On 24 March, WIDE ANDCO partnered with SCRIPT and the Digital Skills and Jobs Coalition Luxembourg to host a flagship event for EU Code Week’s Girls in Digital Initiative. The goal was simple but ambitious: we didn’t just want to teach; we wanted to inspire.
Ada, in lights
The morning kicked off with a performance unlike any typical school assembly. Award-winning storyteller Zoe Philpott brought her one-woman show, ADA.ADA.ADA, to an audience of students aged 12 to 18. Weaving theatre, history, and technology together, she painted a vivid portrait of Ada Lovelace, the world’s first computer programmer.
Zoe captivated the room immediately. Wearing a striking prototype LED dress that pulsed with light, she made a 19th-century mathematician feel urgent and unmistakably relevant today. What made the show especially powerful was its interactivity—students were drawn into the story, asking questions and engaging directly with Zoe as the performance unfolded.
Workshops: hands-on and heads-up
The energy carried over into a series of hands-on discovery workshops. Far from passive listeners, the students built, tested, debated, and pushed back as they explored three pressing themes:
- Artificial Intelligence
- Robotics
- Gender Stereotypes in Tech
By the end of the morning, these workshops had become windows into new possibilities, offering quiet but powerful invitations to rethink what equality in technology actually looks like.
For the adults in the room
The second half of the day was dedicated to teachers and parents—the people who shape the environments where the next generation learns and forms their ambitions.
After enjoying Zoe’s performance themselves, participants were introduced to the G-Steam Community of Practice, an ambitious Erasmus+ project working at the intersection of gender and STEAM education. G-Steam is a living European network designed to:
- Empower educators and engage policymakers.
- Co-create strategies that embed gender-sensitive teaching into schools.
- Spark lasting, systemic change in education.
The evening wrapped up with a reflection exercise using a Situational Judgement Test. Using real accounts from teachers across Europe, participants examined complex, sometimes uncomfortable scenarios involving bias linked to gender, race, religion, and disability. It prompted the audience to pause, reflect, and examine their own instincts.
More than an event
Girls in Digital Week in Luxembourg was proof that when you create the right space, curiosity does the rest.
Over the course of one remarkable day, more than 100 participants came together to explore, question, and create. They left with a shared conviction: technology belongs to all of us. Closing the gender gap in tech starts early. It starts with the stories we tell, the role models we celebrate, and the conversations we are brave enough to have. Seeing so many young minds and committed adults equally energized reminded us exactly why this work matters.
We are proud to have been part of it, and we cannot wait for what comes next!
