#MMIjourney - Vol 4 - Women in Tech

I love it when things come together. When that "meant-to-be-ness" hits your core, and you know that you are on to something good. It is elusive and it is rare to get that buzz in your daily grind. However, I am happy that this was the case when I was working on MMI's collaboration to host the first Pretoria Women In Tech event.

 I am well aware that at this point you might be saying; "Just hang on a second...” Yes, I am a guy. However, having been on the receiving end of discrimination whilst working abroad and having little recourse to address it, has left an imprint to create inclusivity where ever I find myself earning a living.

 Secondly, I am also glad to report that I was not alone since we had a good turnout of our senior male tech leadership and community at MMI in support of our female colleagues.

And this is where the rub comes in – diversity is one thing and often is the easier part of the conversation. Inclusivity is a much more elusive and intangible objective. To stress the point, it is often stated that:

"Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance.”

 The Women in Tech event did, however, bring up some interesting questions: how representative were we of women in IT? How inclusive were we?

We had Ashlene van der Colff our Chief Operating Officer share her own story and some insights on MMI's female tech community.

 With the average representation of women in tech hovering across geographies at around 23%, I am happy to report that we are at a 40% female compliment. However, at senior management levels, we only have 3 women taking the seat at the table with the "big boys".

 Ashlene also stressed the challenges women have in taking that "seat at the table" in a male-dominated environment. Yet, in the same breath, she also thanked the great men who have helped achieve it.

 A key observation van der Colff made was that IT is a hard environment for women as it often demands overtime and weekend work, and it is something she is looking at with MMI's IT leadership.

Our next speaker was the inspirational Lindiwe Matlali from AfricaTeenGeeks. She informed us that computer science as a school subject is the luxury of private model C schools. Or at least that was the case for Tshwane municipal district until she convinced them to include it in the curriculum as of next year.

 This is welcomed news as South Africa is in desperate need of tech youngsters. Especially; African and female tech youngsters.

Matlali’s NPO, AfricaTeenGeeks, ensures that children from the most remote and disadvantaged communities have the chance to be taken to one of 26 UNISA learning centers every Saturday to learn to code. 16 of these lucky kids are going to get to go to a Hackathon in Silicon Valley later this year.

 What struck me is how she corrected someone calling her daughter for being a tomboy by stating that: "she is a girl interested in tech".

 Samantha Perry concluded the evening with a sobering dose of stats and insights on barriers for girls and young women to even consider a career in Tech and how tech reflects the gender norms and biases.

 Perry also asked the women in the audience to identify if they themselves were a barrier for other women to succeed in IT environments by how they dressed and by asking if they genuinely celebrate the success of other women.

 The event was wrapped up with lively debate and some good wine.

We are in the process of establishing a fully-fledged Women in Tech chapter for Pretoria here at MMI and extending a wide invitation to women and supporters of women in tech to join us every last Thursday of the month.

We hope to see you there and have your help to redefine what inclusivity looks like for women in Tech.