Women in ICT, lead by Kemisola Bolanrewa, emphasized that more women are needed in the IT industry for equality, and they should be encouraged to follow the road by shattering preconceptions and ingrained views about what are considered appropriate vocations for men and women, respectively.
She claims that women are frequently more productive wherever they are, which is why having more women in technology will lead to more discoveries, creative solutions, and scientific advances.
She used the Women in ICT team’s recent advancements in the early detection of cancer through the early cancer detection smart brassiere as the ideal illustration of how inventive women can be in the innovation arena.
“Right now, the invention of the smart bra that detects cancer is a good example. This cancer has been a disease that has been there for a very long time but even though we have a lot of men in the sciences, they couldn’t solve this particular problem so this is a case of women solving women’s problems through technological invention.”
“These are part of why we need more women in STEM ( Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), space generally,” she said.
According to Professor Olabisi Aina, a researcher and lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile Ife, Nigeria’s National Gender Policy is allowing new economic sectors, like the sciences, to participate in the effort to mainstream gender.
The 2006 Gender Policy for Nigeria, which was amended in 2021 under the direction of Professor Aina, said that ”the National Gender Policy is an umbrella policy to which we expect that every sector whether it is labour, environment, health and others, should key into and look at gender issues in their sectors and then draw policy guidelines in order to mainstream gender into what they do.”
Esohe Ahior, the Head of the Department of Poise Graduate Finishing Academy, mentioned that training girls in fields like graphic design among others has been the focus of her Organization for the International Women’s Month while discussing the significance of upscaling youth in technology and innovation to advance their livelihood and enable them to contribute to the economy.
She addressed that “We always look out for the disadvantaged in the society to benefit from our programs such as girls that have been abused, early mothers and those set aside as useful.”
“We train them to become confident and useful to themselves and gender mainstreaming in tech and innovation has helped our girls become better versions of themselves,” she said.
