Women Playing A Key Role In Driving Impact Through Technology

The past year has been very challenging, from the stress of living through a global pandemic to the various lockdown restrictions that have kept us indoors.

But, amidst this tough phase, we have also witnessed moments worth celebrating. In the past few months, we saw Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala become both the first woman as well as the first African to serve as WTO’s director-general.

Whilst in Tanzania, we saw Samia Suluhu Hassan being sworn in as the African state’s first female president. Across the continent, we are seeing more women leading movements for inclusivity, equality, and justice – reshaping Africa’s legacy.

While change has been incremental, we still need a breakthrough. A recent IBM IBV Study suggests that more programs haven’t translated to more progress. With the impact of COVID-19, women will be our biggest casualties as progress for women at work could be back to 2017 levels by the end of 2021.

While a small group is leading the effort to close the prevailing gender gap across the continent, there is a growing need to go beyond what’s being done now; actively build women in the workforce and create supportive cultures even when the COVID-19 pandemic is behind us.

My work affords me the privilege of meeting and listening to some very inspiring women who are helping bring about significant changes using technology. As I interact with them and watch them, I realize that we all need to be intentional about promoting women at the workplace. That is an important start, but for full and effective participation we first have to make sure our young women develop a keen interest in technology and science-related subjects at an early age.

Cultivating an interest in science and technology

Research shows that unless we change various cultural and behavioral drivers within organizations, the matter is unlikely to be resolved any time soon. In South Africa, the proportion of females to males who graduate with STEM-related (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) degrees is out of kilter. Developer Advocate at IBM in South Africa and Scrum Master for Student Experience within IBM Z, Phila Phungula is aware of this disparity and comments that the lack of women in final year classes is a continued sight in the universities she interacts with.

As an IBM Z technical specialist, Phila represents one of the 30% of professionals in the technology industry in sub-Saharan Africa. Today she leads the charge to expose students to IBM technologies – giving them insights into emerging technologies such as blockchain and Microservices, helping them develop coding skills. She understands the need for community and has built a meetup page with over 600 members (most of them industry developers) across South Africa, Egypt, and even Saudi Arabia. The hackathons she hosts are designed to give students an entry into technology – cultivating and nurturing the interest that led her on this career path and closing the gap between women and men in exploring careers in technology. In fact, she will also be speaking at the Women in Tech World Series.

The future of Africa relies on a solid pipeline of women in STEM

The lack of women in our classrooms also impacts the number of women in our boardrooms. An IBM study shows that only 1 in 4 global organizations has made gender equity a business priority – and there are now fewer women in the pipeline to fill senior executive roles than there were in 2019.

Globally,