Celebrating Women in Tech.

The world is celebrating women, and it is a beautiful thing to see all these women being celebrated for their diversity and contributions to society. We appreciate them, we celebrate them.

Recently the daily nation dedicated a pull-out to celebrate women in corporate positions. The statics in there is everything impressive. More women are taking managerial positions in the organizations they work for. Women are infiltrating fields that were otherwise considered male-dominated like Technology and Engineering.

This week we celebrate women who are icons in Tech, the Tech girls. In the recent past, men outnumbered women in key IT and Tech roles. This has however been gradually changing as more and more women take up these roles. Women are getting more opportunities to assert themselves in tech-related fields. In the UK, a first-world country, only 19% of the tech workforce are female. Despite the fact that the tech industry is becoming more diverse and organizations are creating more opportunities for women, the growth rate is still low and this reflects locally too.

Shining bright in this space are some brilliant women who have been the pacesetters for women and girls in tech.

1. Linda Kamau – Founder AkiraChix

AkiraChix, an exclusive women’s premier coding school, was founded in 2010. Hundreds of women have graduated from this coding school and proceeded to make a positive impact in their communities. According to Linda, “When you give a woman a fair chance, she thrives.”

• Chao Mbogho – Founder KamiLimu

Chao is also the dean of the School of Computer Science at Kenya Methodist University. She was the only female IT student in her class for four years. During her final year, two more female students were admitted. She created the KamiLimu mentorship program to expose female coders.

• Fatma Mohamed Abdulkadir – WHO

At 28, she is currently the only woman working with the WHO to build a digital platform for the Ministry of Health in Kenya. She is a lead programmer at Infonet.

As more girls enroll for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) and women take up key tech roles, we are bound to tilt the gender balance in the tech space.

Hamjambo celebrates and appreciates women making an impact in their spaces.