Women in tech need to speak out

Issued by Verve Digital
Johannesburg, 18 Aug 2016

Gender diversity is an ongoing challenge for many industries, including ICT. In South Africa, women make up only 23% of the IT workforce. If the sector is going to attract and retain more women, action needs to be taken.

EMC client solutions director Charlene George says women in the sector need to speak out, share their experiences and show young women and girls, particularly, that there are women in the tech sector and that it offers a wide range of career options.

"We also need to address the stigma that girls don't enjoy math and that they therefore can't be good at it," she says.

Comments EMC channel sales leader Chipo Msimanga: "It starts in the classroom; we need to look at how we teach these subjects. Are we keeping children excited and engaged when we're teaching maths and science? We need to keep it relevant; instead of talking to people about speeds and feeds, talk about technology in a way that's pertinent to what's happening today. For example, I used to have to rush home to catch my favourite show at 7pm; now we have PVRs, so I don't need to do that. That's IT, and it's part of our lives."

Watch the full interview here.

For more information about diversity and inclusion in EMC Southern Africa, feel free to contact Sonelia du Preez, Marketing Lead: Africa on e-mail: sonelia.dpureez@emc.com, or visit: www.southafrica.emc.com.

This entry was posted in Solutions Director, sponsored blog on 18 August 2016 by Samantha.

About Samantha Perry

Samantha Perry is the JHB Agency Lead for Irvine Partners, an integrated public relations and marketing agency. She previously worked as a freelance journalist, and has over 20 years of experience writing for a range of media, print and online, mainly in the ICT sector. She has written for Brainstorm magazine, Mail & Guardian, several niche B2B titles and several corporate clients. She also has a master's degree in ICT policy and regulation, and serves on the IAB SA Marketing Council as the PR rep. She has worked as an independent telecoms researcher for some of the analyst houses in that field and was regularly called on to comment on telecoms issues in the press. Nowadays she can be found commenting on women in tech issues in the press, and speaking at conferences on the subject of the issues women in the sector face.

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