On March 8 every year, the world celebrates International Women’s Day (IWD). Beyond the conferences and celebrations, the core of IWD is to raise awareness about the work that has been done to champion the cause of women around the world, and to facilitate conversations on what more needs to be done in this regard.
This year, in line with the theme of IWD 2023, we spoke to Omotola Omotayo, Community Lead Manager at She Code Africa to highlight the work that She Code Africa does to bridge the gender gap and ensure the inclusion of more women in the technology industry.
What is She Code Africa’s story?
Tracking back the story, Ada Nduka Oyom, She Code Africa founder, wanted to spotlight women in tech who are doing well in their careers via her articles. She then set a goal to give back to the tech community in 2017. She wanted to teach secondary school girls how to code, which was the start of our summer school project. After the summer code camp was a success, she wanted to do more.
We then had the She Code Africa Mentoring Program (SCAMP) cohort 1 first application in December 2019. After one of the SCA camp series, we saw the need to bring these ladies together in a space where we can share more resources with them and monitor their growth; they can network, collaborate, and so on. Hence, the She Code Africa (SCA) community.
The community aims to support these women and girls through diverse online and offline communities, monitoring their growth and providing them with resources. We had experts in several fields in the community available to support and guide the members through their career paths. They also have each other - like-minded persons who were there to support them and serve as accountability partners, etc. That was how the community started.
WHAT IS SHE CODE AFRICA’S “WHY”?
We have a lot of women and girls in Africa, and there’s this mindset that women and girls do not belong to the tech space, and it belongs to the other gender.
She Code Africa aims to empower women and girls, irrespective of their background, with the necessary tech skills and support to enable them to own a career path in tech. What keeps us going is the impact from the efforts we’re putting into this; the success stories of our beneficiaries who not only own a career path in tech but also land their dream tech jobs, among many others.
What are the other - and possibly, less visible - areas your team at SheCode Africa has had to work on to empower women on their tech journey?
Women in tech need more than courses, laptops, and events. They also need a safe space. There is a need to create a more inclusive and supportive environment for women. She Code Africa has been doing, providing women with a safe space and ensuring that they can let their voices out, constantly reminding them of who they are and encouraging them to apply for opportunities.
Most importantly, She Code Africa has been connecting community members to opportunities. The contributions of women in tech in society should be valued, respected, and acknowledged. Let’s commit to empowering women, breaking barriers, and promoting an inclusive workplace culture.
What are two empowerment stories that inspired you personally?
I’ll start with Ruth Ikega, one of our program beneficiaries for the SCAMP (cohort 2) program in 2020.
Ruth has a non-tech background and started her technical journey through this program. During the program, one of the requirements is to write technical articles on your journey and your experience in the boot camp. She started writing about her struggles, wins, and overcoming challenges. Even after completing the program, she discovered she was interested in technical writing. So, she started writing more articles and later got a full-time role as a technical writer. She also became an advocate of technical writing and open source, and now she works as a consultant in the open source field. She's also well known as one of the GitHub stars and as a great advocate of open source contributions. She’s currently leading the CHAOSS Africa community.
Another success story is that of Aishat Mubideen, who participated in an open source program (Contributhon by SCA). After going through the program successfully, she applied for the Outreachy internship program, a higher-paid remote program. She’s doing well in contributing to the open source communities she’s working with and also doing more to support more people to be a part of the open source community.
Another program beneficiary of ours participated in our cloud school program. This mentee was among the top participants, so she received the scholarship. After her internship with Damos, she was allowed to work full-time.
What can more organizations do to support the inclusion of more women in the tech industry?
One of the challenges is the need for more resources. She Code Africa programs and initiatives are provided for FREE. Secondly, we need more opportunities for women and girls who have learned the required technical skills through our community programs and are looking for a place to put into practice what they have learned.
The bias is still out there. I encourage everyone to not just talk and take action and involve more women in your organization—partner with organizations like She Code Africa.
We need more opportunities for women and girls who have learned the required technical skills through our community programs and are looking for a place to put into practice what they have learned.
It is a big challenge for us because these ladies are ready to start a career path in tech, but they need to get the opportunities such as internships or full-time roles with organizations.
Organizations should open an internship opportunity every year to bring in our resourceful women and girls and provide them with internships or full-time job opportunities. This action would go a long way in making such an organization intentionally inclusive.
What is your message to girls and women who are trying to get into the tech industry?
Hey girl, there is a space for you in tech.
To learn more about the work done by She Code Africa, visit shecodeafrica.org
