Behind every successful woman should be another woman

You’ve probably heard this motivational phrase more than once; ‘Behind every successful man there is a woman’. During the premier HerNovation Roundtable at Enashipai Resort in Naivasha, Laura Chite, CEO CIO East Africa challenged women to make a deliberate leap to change the adage to favor the empowerment of women.

I recently read of an ASU  research that alludes “Women are far more likely to underestimate their own intelligence than men. And, when comparing a female and a male student, with a similar GPA, the male student is likely to say he is smarter than 66 percent of the class, and the female student is likely to say she is smarter than only 54 percent of the class.”

In a world where perceptions are important, women may choose not to venture into IT because they may not believe they are as smart. This is an easy problem to fix; it’s a mindset issue.

Women believe that men are born with the handiwork and an innate ability to perform what is considered technical chores. This is all so misinformed. Women instincts is the most powerful tool that should guide women lives as alluded Laura Chite during the heated HerNovation event.

Female self-mentorship was largely deliberated upon by a session that was equally graced by men in the tech space. Aprielle Moraa, MD Infosphere attributed women’s lag on IT the space to their lack to support themselves.

“Women are their own enemies and do not like to help each other even when in the position,” says Moraa adding; “Women can do just as much as men. If they code, women can also code.”

It emerged that women are strong in real life and can convene between career and family lives.  “Women are strong, they only need to identify their strength and dig into their pot of strength that every woman has,” says Agnes Gathaiya whose career almost got crumbled due to raising a daughter.

Gathaiya believes that there is no ‘work life’ balance; there’s just life and encourages women not to get shying off seeing assistance with their problems.

During the panel discussion, other barriers like gender bias also emerged as underlying factors to the low number of women being in the tech space. Bobby Yawe who upheld the fact the strength of women shapes destinies commended the ability of women to plan long term and still retain strategizing skills.

He said, “Women have it all figured out even before it is started. What is lacking is mentorship for fellow women form those of them who have made it through men biases and black sheep issues.”

Mentorship should be done in cycles to allow mentees to also mentor others and carry on their mentors’ legacies. It then will lead more women into this male dominated space.