The tech industry has continued to push towards getting more women into the sector globally as the number of females in the space has always been lower than that of men.
Around the world, there exists a gender gap in science and technology with statistics from UNESCO science reporting stating that women still account for 28% of engineering graduates and 40% in computer science and informatics.
According to the national bureau of statistics on average, Nigerian women make up just 22% each year. Nigeria’s tech sector may be rising but it still has a sizeable gender gap and a lot more needs to be done to improve gender diversity to encourage more women to take up careers in tech.
Motunrayo Opayinka founder of WomenNovate shares why we should support women building careers in tech.
CFA: Motunrayo glad to have you on tech trends.
Motunrayo: It’s a pleasure to be here today, thank you
CFA: All right, women in technology, what’s your take?
Motunrayo: It’s exciting, it’s about time we have more women participating in technology more for inclusion, innovation, and also the diversity that it brings.
You know women are at the core of economic engines for any nation so it’s about time we take that step I know and be involved rightly so.
CFA: So what would you say about the steps being taken at all levels to see that this happens in reality?
Motunrayo: Right, I mean it’s a global drive now thanks to the UN with the SDG goals which they’ve developed.
We see different countries trying to align to those goals, more and more is being done, we see the numbers rising and we still have a long way to go but surely we’re seeing the differences, there are more women in leadership now, there are more women in roles that years back we wouldn’t have thought of them being so yes, it’s the right way forward and we’re making progress.
CFA: Okay but let’s drive it down, you know, talking about STEM or STEAM, science, technology, add agriculture as you put yours you know. How do we drive young girls at a very early age to embrace some of these sectors?
Motunrayo: So, like you rightly say, we start them young. Values are inculcated very early in stages of human life so we start young, from primary education, a child should look up and say I can be a doctor if I want to be, I can be a neurologic engineer if I choose to be it… (watch the full video here).
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