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TRENDING
DING CTO CELEBRATES
AFRICAN FEMALES
WORKING IN TECHNOLOGY
Barbara McCarthy, Global CTO at international mobile top-up platform Ding
whose African operations are headquartered in Cape Town, tells us about how
African women are making a huge contribution to technology. She tells us:
“Successful women in technology and the sciences must be celebrated and
brought to the fore so that they are visible.”
T
he theme for International Women’s
Day 2020 was #EachforEqual – an
equal world is an enabled world. As
a woman in technology and one of a very
small number of female Chief Technology
Officers, I think a lot about the need to
champion women in the areas of innovation
and technology and to promote the need
for equality. As a global business, Ding’s
customers come from communities across
the world so we see progress through a
global lens and it is dispiriting to see that
despite enormous progress in secondary
school enrolment among girls across the
globe, there continues to be a wide gender
digital divide in the fields of science,
technology, engineering, mathematics
(STEM) and design.
This is especially so in the developing world’s
where many of our customers live, and
even more so in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is
only right that – with Africa’s soaring youth
demographic – we ask a painful question:
Can the United Nations’ fifth sustainable
development goal on gender equality and
www.intelligentcio.com
the empowerment of women and girls ever
be realised on the African continent?
Education is key
Before examining women in STEM in Africa,
it’s very important to note that this is not
a uniquely African challenge: UNESCO
intelligence shows that only 35% of
students in higher education globally are
women – with only 3% in technology. As
the Fourth Industrial Revolution evolves and
the repercussions of AI and automation
unfold, these are alarming figures. This is
not a problem that is unique to developing
economies – it is perhaps heightened in
these regions but it is certainly a global issue.
For me personally, education has
undoubtedly been the thing that has
provided me with the opportunities I
have today. Coming from a large family,
with parents who were not afforded the
benefit of completing their secondary
education – their determination to provide
me with the best education they could, is
“
THE AWARENESS
OF THE
IMPORTANCE OF
EDUCATING AND
PROVIDING EQUAL
OPPORTUNITIES
FOR GIRLS IS
GROWING AND IN
AFRICA WE KNOW
OF COURSE THAT
THERE HAS BEEN
PROGRESS.
INTELLIGENTCIO
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