IWD 2022: Having more women in tech promotes gender parity, equal representation

As the world celebrates International Women’s Day (IWD) 2022, the need to support more women in the technology space for gender parity by developing solutions and ideas for lowering barriers and improving safety of girls in the ecosystem has again been brought to the fore.

For girls to thrive in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), they need the knowledge, support, and empowerment of their communities. When girls can safely access and explore the digital world, they can start to imagine future STEM careers, ICT education and a future in technology.

Nkemdilim Uwaje Begho, CEO, Future Software Resources Limited, said there are not enough women in technology. Hence, it is important for organisations to support getting more women into technology and inspiring young women to pursue a career in technology.

Begho stated this at the IWD 2022: Girls in Technology Seminar organised by Duale, Ovia and Alex-Adedipe (DOA) Law Firm, with the theme, ‘Girls in Tech: Breaking the Bias in Technology’, held in Lagos on Monday 7 March, in commemoration of this year’s international women’s day.

She posits that it is relevant to celebrate IWD because the world is still not gender equal. “Until we have a gender equal world, we will continue to have under-representation of over 50 percent of the world’s population,” said Begho.

She equally posits that there is no need reinventing the wheels when it comes to regulations and policy direction in support of gender equity.

Read also: IWD: ActionAid worried rejected gender bills would prolong fight for parity

“Support the initiatives that have been working on this for the last 10 years with funding so that they can widen their reach. Support young women while they are still in the university with programmes that mentor them; create internship opportunities specifically for young women to explore careers in technology and get founders as well as established corporates to focus on hiring women into technology,” she stated.

“Whilst the title is breaking that bias, we want to say that as a law firm we support the women; we encourage the women, we celebrate women and we have not only said this by words of mouth, we have shown this by our action,” said Adeleke Alex-Adedipe, managing partner, Duale, Ovia and Alex-Adedipe (DOA) Law Firm, stating that the issue is not about the exposure to technology, but participation and the role women play in the technology space.

According to him, DOA initiative is to drive women participation in technology by encouraging young girls to get into the tech space. “We are saying that technology has come to be a major part of our lives and it’s important that this major part of our lives going on in the future – women should not be exempted, and women should be highly celebrated,” Alex-Adedipe said.

Kari Tukur, vice president of products at MasterCard, Sub-Saharan Africa, said there is a natural instinct of creativity and problem solving that comes from being a woman. According to her, having more women in tech drive problem solving, leveraging creativity to address gender disparity in the tech industry.

“In the new world that we are in, technology is actually being used to create experiences; to improve things and create solutions. What I want is a situation where we have more relatable women who you can reference to say this is the line of technology that I want to take,” said Tukur, urging the girls to start taking space and that Nigeria needs more women in all facets of technology.