Women in Technology

According to Wikipedia, in the US, women’s representation in the computing and information technology workforce has been falling from a peak of 38% in the mid-1980s to a lower value between 29 % and 27% in the 2000s. This is despite the tremendous growth in the two over the last decade. A similar situation prevails in the education sector, the number of women represented in undergraduate computer science education and the white-collar information technology workforce peaked in the mid-1980s, and has declined ever since. In 1984, 37.1% of Computer Science degrees were awarded to women; the percentage dropped to 29.9% in 1989-1990, and 26.7% in 1997-1998 and less than 12% of Computer Science degrees were awarded to women in 2010-11. Would the challenge be attitude towards these fields, the fear of being a geeky lady?

However, despite this trend, there have been remarkable women technologists throughout the world taking leadership roles in the IT industry. Starting with Kenya, we can sight a few examples. Dr Katherine Getao, ICT Secretary, Directorate of eGovernment, leads an organization whose mission is enhance efficiency in Government operations, data integration and in delivering public services using IT. Dorcas Muthoni is the founder and chief executive of Openworld Ltd, an open source consulting firm in the east African region. Muthoni is also a co-founder of the regional organization LinuxChix Africa, a technical capacity building initiative for women in the region. Hital Muraj is the Corporate Affairs Manager Cisco Systems, Kenya. She is responsible for the Networking Academy Program in 11 countries in East Africa; managing and recruiting academies and engaging with the leadership of the countries to build the ICT workforce and encourage socioeconomic development.

Ory Okolloh is the policy manager and government relations manager for Google in Africa. Before joining Google, Okolloh co-founded Ushahidi which initially was a website developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election violence at the beginning of 2008 but has since been used to manage crisis across the world. Okolloh’s co-founder at Ushahidi, Juliana Rotich is also a co-founder of Mobisoko, a mobile marketplace for language and location relevant apps in Africa. Dorothy Ooko was the Communications and PR manager for Nokia Eastern Southern Africa until recently she joined Google. Dorothy is now serving as Communications & Public Affairs Manager for East & Francophone Africa. Njeri Rionge is a former Director and Co-founder of Wananchi Online Limited, a leading IP communications solutions provider. She is now the Chief Techpreneuer at Insite Limited and Executive Director at Ignite Consulting Limited.

At the global scene, women are keeping an impressive record. Perhaps an apt example would be Virginia Marie Rometty, current Chairlady and CEO of IBM, who recently visited to launch the IBM research center in Kenya. Ursula M. Burns serves as Madam Chairlady and CEO of Xerox. She is the first African-American woman CEO to head a Fortune 500 company. Marissa Ann Mayer is an American business executive. As of 2013 she is President and CEO of Yahoo. Previously, she was a long-time executive and key spokesperson for Google. Kim Stevenson is the CIO at Intel, where she had been serving as GM & VP of IT Operations and Services. Adriana Karaboutis is the VP & Global CIO at Dell. Most recently, Karaboutis was VP of IT at Dell. Cathy Lasser is Vice President and CTO for the Distribution Sector, IBM Sales & Distribution division. She began her career with IBM in 1978 as a programmer. Padmasree Warrior is the Chief Technology & Strategy Officer (CTO) of Cisco Systems, and the former CTO of Motorola, Inc.

Considering the brilliant women sighted above, and the growth trend in the IT industry, there are unlimited opportunities for both men and women. All that needs to change is notion towards IT and computing major at the universities. Probably, the attitude change can start with the parents, they should encourage their daughters to take on courses in the industry and rise to the apex. That said and done, same case applies to men.