Integrated Biometrics and Biometrics Institute encourage industry gender balance for International Women’s Day

Integrated Biometrics Management Consultant On Tim Tang is speaking at a United Nations event marking International Women’s Day as part of an interactive panel discussion on the importance of including arts in STEM programming.

The theme of the Annual Women’s Empowerment and Youth Development Event is “Think Equal, Build Smart, Innovate for Change!” Tang joined Integrated Biometrics in 2018 to work with teams on continuous improvement strategies and long-term planning to support UN Sustainable Development Goal 16.9 with fingerprint biometrics.

“Empowering women is very close to my heart and it is an honor to speak at this event,” Tang says. “One way to empower women is by increasing their access to resources. Mobile biometrics can be the first step in unlocking opportunities for the previously unidentified in terms of financial services, healthcare, personal safety, and social programs.”

The Biometrics Institute is marking International Women’s Day by inviting women in the biometrics industry to join the Institute to help balance the global dialogue on biometrics, and profiling four women who lead the international organization.

Women make up 29 percent of the Biometrics Institute’s membership, which consists of more than 1,000 people from roughly 240 organizations based in 30 countries. The Institute also profiles four women who are leaders of the Institute and the broader industry in the post inviting new female members. In addition to CEO Isabelle Moeller, the post singles out the efforts of Dr. Sandra Leaton Gray is a member of the Biometrics Institute’s Privacy Expert Group, World Privacy Forum Director Pam Dixon, and Director of DHS OBIM’s Identity Capabilities Management Division Lisa MacDonald.

“We absolutely need a better gender balance in biometrics to so that we can throw light on how systems work within everyday society, not just in the development lab,” Gray comments. “We don’t want to see a lack of diversity leading to new products that have a disproportionately negative effect on the lives of women and young people.”

“This is a really exciting year for us where we’ll be focusing on the ethics of biometrics,” says Moeller. “How do we balance the potential of what biometrics can offer with what society really wants and needs? We want to bring as many voices together from our diverse membership of experts to steer the conversation towards a future where biometrics impacts positively on all our lives.”

Article Topics

biometrics  |  Biometrics Institute  |  ethics  |  Integrated Biometrics  |  Isabelle Moeller  |  OBIM  |  United Nations  |  World Privacy Forum