What man can do, woman can even do better, Ms Ann Mwangi, an Application Developer at ThoughtWorks Uganda said at a recent Girl Geek Dinner in Kampala.
Ms Emily Namugaanyi, an Application Developer at ThoughtWorks Uganda speaking at the Girl Geek Dinner in Kampala.
Due to the social prejudices and mindsets, women has been discouraged from taking to scientific study including technology.
The prejudiced mindsets, the burden of family roles on women and gender biased administration has since the African Traditional Society been hindering woman’s role in business, technology and science.
However, with education and women emancipation, this has changed.
According to The Atlantic’s Alex Madrigal the coveted 18-34 male demographic is no longer the most important force in technology consumption and purchasing.
Intel anthropologist and all-round awesomesauce dispenser Genevieve Bell’s research, shows that women lead tech adoption in “internet usage, mobile phone voice usage, mobile phone location-based services, text messaging, Skype, every social networking site aside from LinkedIn, all Internet-enabled devices, e-readers, health-care devices, and GPS. Also, because women still are the primary caretakers of children in many places, guess who controls which gadgets the young male and female members of the family get to purchase or even use?”
ThoughtWorks and Airtel Uganda last week held the second edition of the Girl Geek Dinner at Fairway Hotel in Kampala.
Girl Geek Dinner is a global event that promotes women in the Information Technology sector. It brings together women technology practitioners, to share and learn from each.
This dinner gave an inclusive forum where women technologists interacted, encouraged and learnt from each other.
One of the key note speakers, Ms Mwangi talked about how she manages to balance her work as a developer and her responsibility as a mother of four. She narrated on how she does what she loves and still gets enough time to care and pamper her four children.
“Find what you love and let it kill you,” Mwangi noted as she emphasized on need to follow a career that one loves.
She explained on how everything is better with a touch of a woman. “Know what you want to achieve, the biggest resource you have is your mind.”
Adding humor to the evening, Ms Emily Namugaanyi, an Application Developer at ThoughtWorks Uganda said “Clean code always looks like it was written by someone who cares,” as she explained some of the things one should not do while one codes.
Mwangi noted that the number of roles in technology for women are so many, one has to only find what they are good at and let it kill them.
She quoted George Bernard Shaw: “Life was never meant to be easy, my child but take courage, it can be delightful.”
Women are part of the journey to create a new benchmark for growth and innovation.
The state of affairs, prejudiced mindsets, the burden of family roles on women and gender biased administration are the most challenges that reduced the women scientists and technologists to a minority status in their work places.
Women had less access to resources such as property, finance, technology and education that were otherwise needed to support their active engagement in science, technology and innovation.
But with women emancipation, education and more opportunities given to women, they could emerge as real achievers in the field of science and technology, and give necessary thrust to the growth of the country.
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