How can we harness technology to promote gender equality and women's sexual health?

In a world where intimate photos of women are shared without consent and Personal information is being used to incriminate women who may undergo abortions - can technology serve as a tool for promoting gender equality and women's sexual health?

The term "FemTech" is shorthand for "Female Technology" and refers to innovation and technological solutions that address women's needs. FemTech encompasses any product, service, or startup that focuses on women's needs or promotes gender equality. This includes areas such as fertility, pregnancy and childbirth, menopause, women's health issues, balancing family and career, relationships and dating, prevention of sexual assault, domestic violence, and more. Additionally, FemTech represents the demand for adapting products and services to meet the needs of women and all genders.

This is one of the fastest-growing and strengthening industries today. After years of neglect, issues on the female agenda are gaining recognition, creating opportunities for advancing appropriate solutions. Women represent a significant and economically important market segment, and with the rise in data collection, knowledge, and awareness of gender issues, the demand for solutions from users and customers is growing. Israel, known globally as "Startup Nation", is a prime example of technological development. Furthermore, it has a strong community that values the promotion of gender equality. This combination contributes to Israel's leadership in the FemTech industry, despite its relatively small size.

FemTech Israel is a professional community founded by Shelly Bloch, a sociologist, UX researcher, and product manager specializing in gender aspects of technological innovation. The community's primary goal is to strengthen the Israeli FemTech ecosystem within both local and international industries. This includes raising awareness of the potential and importance of the field, deepening knowledge in developing products tailored to all genders, creating professional platforms for discussion and consultation, providing training and practical tools, leading collaborations between relevant organizations and stakeholders, and fostering professional connections, business opportunities, and economic growth in both the local and international industries.?

What exactly are women's needs, and what does innovation have to do with it??

If we look back, the concept of FemTech originally referred to the few technological solutions designed specifically for women—mainly in the field of women's health. More precisely, these technologies were often limited to fertility and childbirth, which, in some places, is still perceived as the only difference between men and women. Today, after a long history of excluding women from research and failing to gather gender-specific data or study phenomena unique to women, Western medicine is beginning to recognize that women are not just "small men with a womb" but have their own distinct characteristics and needs. For instance, women display different symptoms than men leading up to a heart attack, the manifestations of ADHD in women are different, and they require different medication dosages. Health-related FemTech products can include a period-tracking app, a smart breast pump, an at-home ultrasound device, or an AI app that calculates the appropriate drug dosage based on hormonal fluctuations throughout the menstrual cycle.

Beyond the evolving understanding of women's health, there is now growing recognition that "women's needs" aren't solely based on physiological differences but also on unique daily experiences. Here are a few examples: Women tend to have different travel patterns—they are the majority of public transport users, drive shorter distances in cars, and so on. Their participation in the labor market also differs, as they are often steered into certain professions, take maternity leaves, and seek part-time positions. Women are often responsible for household care and caregiving for elderly family members, they tend to feel less safe in public spaces, and so on. Therefore, FemTech solutions can also include an app to help manage care for an ill relative, a smart wearable device that activates a phone camera or contacts the police when distress signals are detected, or even a LinkedIn feature that allows users to mark a gap in their resume for maternity leave, thus normalizing employment breaks for childcare.

FemTech also represents the need for gender-conscious thinking in every stage of product development and design. Since the 1970s, car safety regulations have relied on crash test dummies modeled solely on male body dimensions. Only in 2022(!) a crash test dummy that accurately reflects the body size and structure of women was launched. On average, women are shorter and weigh less, muscle strength differences play an important role in injury response, and there are significant differences in seat and seatbelt fitting due to body shape differences—such as the chest, hips, and torso center of gravity. Data shows that women are indeed more likely to be injured. This is just one of many examples of the need for gender-conscious thinking when developing technological products and services.

Opportunities in intimate realms

A classic FemTech product is the period-tracking app, such as ‘Clue’, whose founder, Ida Tin , is credited with coining the term FemTech. These apps allow users to track menstrual characteristics along with symptoms like fatigue, cramps, migraines, libido, and more. Some apps focus on adjusting nutrition and exercise, others aim to offer convenient support for those trying to conceive, and there’s even a cool app called Teena designed for young girls entering adolescence. Today, all these apps include content, allowing users to learn about these topics independently. For example, the Clue app and website feature an encyclopedia of articles on contraception, fertility, sex, and even LGBTQ+ issues and gender equality! Teena offers relevant articles for teens, covering topics like skincare for acne and the first visit to a gynecologist. It even includes content tailored for the parents of these teens!

As mentioned, FemTech is a subfield of products aimed at addressing women's issues that have historically received insufficient attention. The “Data Gap” is a term that describes the lack of information and data on female-specific phenomena, and one of these overlooked areas is intimacy and sexuality. If the existing gaps weren’t enough, there’s also the “orgasm gap,” a phenomenon where men experience significantly more orgasms than women—not due to any fundamental physical reason. This is one of the areas that has been neglected in research, and there’s little knowledge or data available on it. Lioness offers a smart vibrator alongside ‘Sexploration’ - the smart vibrator allows users to explore their own body and pleasure by graphically visualizing patterns of sexual pleasure and learn what works for them—or doesn’t. The company also aims to collect data to enable broader research in this field. In the linked article for example, you can learn about orgasm patterns.

Harnessing Technology for the Mission of Sexual Education

A classic example worth exploring in the context of using technology to address sexual education issues is the digital workplace training programs aimed to prevent sexual harassment. Israeli employers are legally required to take preventive measures to create a safe and pleasant work environment. While it's worth debating the effectiveness of digital training compared to a personal and intimate meeting with a professional instructor, digital training has its advantages. For large organizations, holding individual sessions with a professional can be expensive and logistically challenging. Digital training enables reaching all employees, including those working remotely, at times that suit them. Additionally, it offers the flexibility to easily update content as needed, tailoring it to the type of work, target audience, and more.

A more interesting example of combining technology with the challenges of sexual education is Stories - an app designed for teenagers to learn about sexual harassment through a game! Users navigate through a comic book-style story, where they choose how the story’s hero will respond to situations like flirting, exposure to sexual content, or other sensitive scenarios. The app provides users with important educational information and immediate feedback on their decisions. It’s essentially a decision-making exercise based on interactive, game-based learning. Stories was developed by Toda’a - a nonprofit organization focused on sexual assault awareness, and was supported and funded by the Ministry of Welfare. Unfortunately, the app is no longer active.

Unlike traditional methods like therapy groups, school lessons, or personal counseling, digital platforms allow for wide-reaching access at a relatively low cost in terms of resources. This creates fertile ground for developing solutions for marginalized populations and issues that would otherwise be deemed "unprofitable" to address, leaving them without adequate solutions. Gabi's Story is an app designed to provide tools for sexual education to children and teens with special needs. It is intended to serve as a companion tool for parents, educators, and therapists rather than a standalone learning tool. According to its creators, "the app was born from the belief that everyone has the right to receive knowledge, guidance, and counseling, and the right to talk about sexuality".

Another significant feature of digital tools is anonymity. In the context of sexual education, the desire for anonymity is understandable, and the ability to offer information and tools without exposing the user can make all the difference. Raaji is a chatbot from Pakistan that communicates with women and girls about topics such as female anatomy, menstrual hygiene, and gender equality. In Pakistan, girls often don't attend school during their period due to shame. It's a taboo subject, and girls have no one to talk to or ask questions. Raaji provides informative content through empathetic and supportive conversations. The advantage of chatbots in this case is that they offer long-term support (as opposed to a one-time conversation or video), are available 24/7, and are free from judgment. After a pilot with 500 girls, their school attendance increased by 95%.?

Technology is already an integral part of our reality, and its presence in our lives will only grow stronger. While it presents significant challenges in areas such as sexual education, it also offers many advantages that, when combined with professional and creative thinking, can lead to positive solutions. However, the reality shows that the tech industry is biased, with certain sectors receiving more attention and development than others. Cybersecurity and gaming, for example, are much more popular and profitable fields than FemTech and educational technologies. This means that in order to realize a vision of technological innovation in sexual education, there is a need for involvement and advocacy by educators and therapists who want to improve the resources available in this field. Awareness an familiarity with the topic is the first step toward that vision.

This article was first published on The Israeli Association of Sex Education's newsletter.