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White House Equal Futures App Challenge to Promote Civic Education and Public Leadership for Girls

September 24, 2012 at 5:00 PM ET by
Summary: 
The White House Council on Women and Girls is launching a challenge for developers: Create an app that promotes civic education and/or inspires girls to serve as leaders in our democracy

“This week, the United States signed a new Declaration on Women’s Participation. Next year, we should each announce the steps we are taking to break down economic and political barriers that stand in the way of women and girls. That is what our commitment to human progress demands.”

 President Obama’s Address to the United Nations General Assembly, September 21, 2011

Building on President Obama’s challenge at the UN General Assembly in September 2011, the United States will be working with various country partners in a new international effort – the Equal Futures Partnership – to break down barriers to women’s political participation and economic empowerment. The goal of the Equal Futures Partnership is for each member country to expand opportunities for women and girls to fully participate in public life and to drive more inclusive economic growth.

As part of these efforts, the White House Council on Women and Girls is launching an app challenge: to create an app that promotes civic education and/or inspires girls to serve as leaders in our democracy.  Notable apps will be highlighted on the White House website and in the White House blog.

Apps should accomplish one or more of the following:

  1. Educate girls about the gender gap in public leadership using existing, publicly-available information (e.g. properly attributed data from websites such as that of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, etc.) 
  2. Connect girls with role models by highlighting women in public leadership positions 
  3. Teach girls about what it means to be an effective leader 
  4. Empower girls to engage with their elected representatives 
  5. Prepare girls to serve in government and run for office themselves

Individuals can learn more about the challenge and submit their apps on equalfutures.challenge.gov between September 25, 2012 at 12:00am EDT and January 12, 2013 at 12:00am EDT.