GENDER BARRIERS IN TECH: HOW SOME ORGANISATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS ARE BRIDGING THE GAP

Giwa Veronica and Olamilekan Mashika

When asked about the reasons for viewing Technology and Engineering as a male profession, a young vibrant secondary school student replied: “My Grandmother told me Technology is an all-male profession. It is not fit for a lady.”

This seemingly harmless response is one among many responses females who showed interest in digital innovation, Technology and Engineering have received from trusted members of their family.

Society has placed gender stereotypes on some professions in a manner that you find more females in a particular profession than the male counterpart and vis-a-vis. Like in Nursing, Education, Communication Tech and Engineering, the balance of male/female in these professions are unequal.

While other professions’ gender imbalance might not be overly apparent, Technology/Engineering is one profession where it is much glaring. For example, in the University of Ibadan, the 200lvl class of the department of Electrical and electronics engineering has 4 female students out of the total of 52 students. Also, in Wood products engineering, there is a total of 4 female students out of 21 students in 400lvl.

Moreover, the growing female interest in science does not literally translate to growth in the participation of females in the technology/Engineering space; there is still a huge chasm to be bridged. According to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, females make up just 22% of graduates of Engineering and Technology departments in Nigeria. This translates that in the digital and Technology space, for every 8 tech bros, you will probably only find one female tech lady.

In a continuous effort to bridge this widened chasm, some International and African organizations such as GDSC (Google developer student club) University of Ibadan chapter, WIE (Women in Engineering) University of Ibadan chapter, She code Africa University of Ibadan chapter, IEEE (Institute of Electrical Electronic Engineering) have annual events geared towards sensitizing young girls in secondary schools to aspire for a bright future in technology; encouraging women in other disciplines to embrace, irrespective of their course of study, digital Technology.

They are also empowering young women who are already in tech by providing resources and financial aids for online courses. Among the women in tech making impressive impacts in the tech space in the University of Ibadan, is Ope Omole and Damilola.

Ope is a Faculty of Education Student, who is also a product Manager. She functioned as the Moderator at the 2023 secondary school outreach organized in commemoration of the International Women’s day 2023. When she was approached on what they do at the just organized tech event for girls, she replied: “We made them understand how evolving technology is in the world we are now, and how we want more ladies, more girls in Tech. We told them the opportunities around knowing or having basic tech skills.”

Damilola, on the other hand, is the Co-lead of GDSC UI and a faculty of Technology student. She is passionate about helping young girls and women find their way into tech. Upon visiting different secondary schools in Ibadan with her colleagues she has this to say, “The problem we realized is that these students are not exposed to what we are exposed to especially those who were privileged to go to privately owned schools. So we went to these schools with two intentions, first is to encourage the students to study engineering and secondly to encourage these ladies to come into tech. We made them realize that you don’t have to be an engineering student to go into tech“.

Ope and Damilola just like other students who are into tech–irrespective of their career paths tell young girls and women stories of how they got into tech and the benefits that abound in digital innovation and Technology. They believe that removing the several barriers that inhibit females from picking interest in Technology and Engineering—through outreaches and webinars—will help them thrive as well as their male counterparts in digital innovation and technology.

Google Developer’s Student Club, UI, also see the need to create more awareness, arouse female interest in the field of technology and see more females in digital and technology related field. Speaking on how GDSC take measures to ensure the interest of more females in tech field and breaking the gender gap in tech, Solomon Idowu, the Non-Technical lead of GDSC UI said:

“We have programs to improve female’s interest in technology. We partner with other female centric tech organisations in the University of Ibadan. Some of them are Women in Engineering and she-code Africa. We majorly focus on increasing female engagement in tech to the month of March when we have the International Women’s Day and in partnership with these organisations we went on a school outreach. In celebration of International Women’s day we had a webinar that was specifically created for women in tech where we had a lot of talk and women in tech industry come to talk on different topics such as inclusion, how to build engagements”.

For she-code Africa, they have a wide community outreach and they are geared towards celebrating and empowering women in tech across Africa. They have held numerous events, which according to their website, are geared towards “empowering and getting more young girls and women into technology across cities and tertiary institution in Africa”.

A belief that the male gender do well in natural sciences than the female gender has in a way influence the number of females in the field of digital innovation and technology. However, these organisations and individuals have taken major steps towards ensuring that these gender gaps are breached and more female interests are turned towards the field of Technology and Engineering.