Women-in-Tech urges girls to take career in STEM

The Founder and President of WITIN, Mrs. Martha Omoekpen-Alade, made the call at the career fair organised to mark  the ‘International Girls in ICT Day’ in Nigeria.The event brought together over a hundred girls from several secondary schools in Lagos State, with an exposition of the various career options available in the STEM field. Over […]

The Founder and President of WITIN, Mrs. Martha Omoekpen-Alade, made the call at the career fair organised to mark  the ‘International Girls in ICT Day’ in Nigeria.
The event brought together over a hundred girls from several secondary schools in Lagos State, with an exposition of the various career options available in the STEM field. Over 40 different career options in ICT alone were expounded in the fair.
Alade opined that a good percentage of girls are not going into science and engineering because they had no idea of the options available in the fields.
She stressed the need to have more girls in STEM as there is huge gender parity in most tech companies.
She said, “Research has shown that companies with a more balanced workforce with women on board do better, their products would satisfy the needs of consumers more. As long as users of technologies remain diverse, producers and inventors of technology must have diverse and balanced teams of males and females. This diversity can only be attained if girls begin to consider careers in STEM. Early interventions will enable girls understand that limitless opportunities abound for them if they leverage on careers available in the field.”
Alade stated that globally, stakeholders have lamented high rate of women dropout in the STEM field; however WITIN is committed, with her partners, to reducing the female gender STEM leaky pipeline.
She said today’s world is controlled by technology as there is hardly any profession that does not have ICT components, adding that, “definitely, IT jobs are well paying, full of prospects and ubiquitously suitable for women.”