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The key pointers highlighted in the speech include:
- She noted that the Conference comes at an opportune time when the Government is taking decisive steps to increase the number of women in leadership positions. She stated that women bring on board diversity and richness and quoted findings from a study undertaken by McKinsey which found USD 28trillion increase in GDP attributed to gender diversity!
- She applauded Women Engineers for pursuing careers in a field which is male dominated especially noting the demands of engineering careers and the multiple role women play as mothers and nurturers.
- She urged WEC to come up with workable strategies for consideration by the Ministry on how to engender the profession of engineers.
- She highlighted the low representation of women in senior engineering management positions (less than 1%) and also noted that there are only three women professional engineers who are board members. She pledged the Ministry’s commitment to addressing this situation.
-Noting that women have low networking abilities, she urged WEC to find other networking models giving an example of women PS who had formed a networking platform.
- On Board representation, she also informed WEC to also focus on Private Sector boards since they are also expected to comply with the 1/3rd gender rule.
- On education, she noted that the digital literacy program has provided increased access to girls to STEM.
- She also noted that the 30% preference schemes for WYPWD had led to increased participation of women in energy, mining and construction industries while over Kshs 20billion of women funds had been disbursed.