The Only Girl In The w?o?r?l?d?... Class

I always remember a young girl who was so incredibly curious about anything that processed data electronically. She’d always get so excited when it was an ICT suite-lesson, ask her parents for the latest technological gizmo’s and often found old gadgets to dismantle, just to find out how they worked. Her interest in the tech industry went straight from our time in Primary school all the way to her first full time job.

I think about how early this passion formed for her and know that where I am, I’ve made the right choice for her.

After all, that little girl was me.

The love for the industry/it’s peripherals hasn’t melted away, as much as my bank account wished it had. In fact, it peaked when I realised how we’ve come so far, yet still have so far to go with diversity in the field (Thanks Hairspray Musical for that jazzy lyric!).

From being the only female in the Computer Science class to then the only student, I pushed and pushed to reassure myself that it was more than feasible to achieve. If NASA Computer, Katherine Johnson, managed to calculate the orbital mechanics (critical to the success of the first and subsequent spaceflights) all whilst battling the challenges faced by African-Americans and woman in work at the time, then we can help young ladies see eye-to-eye with STEM.

Oh, let’s not kid ourselves and say those 2 years were breeze. It was a challenge. But a challenge that had such rewarding outcomes. One of which was completing the two-year course and being the only girl in the class. I hate saying it, because we shouldn’t be in a world where learning a skill with a certain identity is an achievement. It’s so much more complex that just acknowledging the skill now.

However, now we're here, let's start focusing on how we can encourage young ladies to take flight in STEM. The industry needs the brain and believe me, with the different schools I've had pleasure to visit, they're out there! We've just got to do so much better at reassuring the people with the brains that they can do it. That their cranium holds something truly special. We don't do this enough.

So from being part of the 7% of females that study Computer Science at school, to the 17% working technology, I can confirm *dramatic x-factor results music* those figures could definitely be higher, we've the help of speaking and encouraging our ladies more.

"The time is long overdue to encourage more women to dream the possible dream" COO of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg