Getting started on a project, moving forward and accessing top management responsibilities - through all the key stages of our professional lives, whether we are an entrepreneur or an employee, digital is there, accompanying us. How do women seize the opportunities of digital? What do they hope to achieve through the digital revolution? This is what 'Digital equality? Women in the digital revolution' seeks to better understand. We conducted an online survey of 3000 people in more than 60 countries between October and December, 2016, to gauge their views.

Three topics were examined, corresponding to key stages of women's professional lives. Firstly, we examine their entry into working life, to understand how women rely on digital to launch projects. Secondly, career development comes into focus, to see if and how digital supports the evolution of women's career paths. Lastly, we look at access to leading positions and address the question of how digital opens new leadership opportunities up for women and helps them tackle gender bias.

The study highlights a broad consensus on the positive effects of digital. 74% of women and men believe digital technologies ease women's professional lives. Women also believe digital helps them highlight certain specific qualities. 72% say that digital projects carried out by women differ from those carried out by men, mainly on the management level.

Regarding professional development, 60% of women and men think the digital transformation of companies is a source of professional opportunity for women. But 81% of women think it necessary to make professional equality a corporate priority, and not rely only on digital to move things forward.

When it comes to leadership, men and women often have opposing views. 62% of women think they do not have equal access to C-level positions - a belief 53% of men disagree with.

But women remain confident. 63% believe digital will help them fight gender bias and aid them in progressing professionally. Finally, 73% of women and 61% of men think women have their own part to play in the digital revolution.

Significant differences arise in different geographic areas. The United States and Canada are more optimistic about the digital capabilities of offering professional opportunities to women.

But they are less sensitive to gender differences. Only 45% think that women's digital projects are gender specific , and fewer people consider professional equality a priority for entrepreneurs (69%). Europeans on the other hand are less optimistic about the opportunities offered by digital, and more sensitive to the gender gap. Digital is not a world apart, disconnected from the rest. It is in touch with cultures and world views that influence how we use it and what we do with it. There is no one-size-fits-all recipe.