Feminism in the emerging technologies: The rise of the soft -

There is no doubt technical computational skills dominate the emerging nature of work and economy.

However, they cannot be effective without an equal level of competencies in soft and humane skills like emotional and social intelligence, self-awareness, empathy, conflict management, adaptability, teamwork, among others that are necessary for effectiveness and productivity in the emerging workplace.

While most of these soft skills are naturally feministic, feminism in this context, however, does not solely imply an ideology but rather a description of the attributes of soft skills and power.

Soft power has always played a significant role in human development although seldom given the necessary recognition.

It is prominent in international politics, conflict resolution, public diplomacy, and recently soft attributes have the necessary complements for the fast-selling technical computational skills.

The emerging economy is undeniably a soft-powered economy as the nature of work is systematically been repositioned to be more knowledge-driven rather than physical might as in the past.

The emerging industry 4.0, for instance, is mainly automated and robotized, therefore, physical activities in economic production and other life activities are drastically being minimised.

The implication is soft skills such as emotional intelligence (EI), social intelligence (SI), adversity quotient (AQ), conflicts resolution, ethical management, empathy, trustworthiness, and related attributes are being positioned alongside the traditional intelligent quotient (IQ) and technical abilities.

Soft skills are gradually becoming a survival skill in every human activity: economics, leadership, business, politics, foreign affairs, diplomacy, and basic social relationships like friendship, marriage, and family life.

Therefore, there is an urgent need to prioritise girl child education, especially in the tech-related subjects, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) while allowing them the space to thrive because women are definitely playing a very critical role in the emerging economy.

Similar areas of concern are gender equality and inclusivity, remuneration and work-life balance, leadership and representation, among other burning gender equality issues around the world.

Although the global tech space is still male-dominated, its future, however, looks very promising for the female gender because emerging technology is essentially not gender-oriented.

It is therefore an open field for all though with few bottlenecks at this early phase. For instance, in a recent analysis of Africa’s startup ecosystem carried out by Stears Business; the analysis spanning between 2019 and 2021 revealed that the emerging tech industry is still widely dominated by male founders with 72 percent of deals by founder gender being attributed to all-male founding members while female founding members account for 7 percent.

Also, it was revealed the proportion of deals sealed with at least one female co-founder in Nigeria during this period was 28 percent compared to 16 percent in Egypt and South Africa, respectively.

This notwithstanding is not the end, emerging technologies although evolving at a very rapid rate are very promising for those who will avail themselves of the opportunities most especially among the female gender.

In the area of digital technology education, there has been an exponential rise in opportunities to acquire new digital skills, work remotely, and importantly by the virtue of the soft nature of the emerging work that aptly fits the female gender.