Do not see them as women before seeing them as equals at work

CIO East Africa joins the rest of the world in celebrating the International Women’s Day 2020, better IWD2020, themed #EqualForEach.

This day, an annual celebration to help nations worldwide eliminate discrimination against women, focuses on helping women gain full and equal participation in global development. Women’s counterparts, men, get feted annually during the International Men’s Day on November 19th.

As a part of the global pool to honor and encourage women to particularly join technical spaces, CIO East Africa created a platform, #Hernovation, that acts as a support system for the women in tech careers by constantly offering mentorship and soft skills among other things, to help the women sustain their presence in tech and grow their careers.

As a honor to the brilliant team behind Hernovation, we spoke to the Board Members of #Hernovation, to elaborate why the women platform had to be created. Catherine Muraga, a member, narrates her journey in tech, and why more women should be encouraged to join the space.

Muraga, the CIO at then K-Rep now Sidian Bank, realized her love for technology in class five when her father bought her a watch. Looking back, she now confesses that she had a curious mind, always wanting to dismantle and rearrange the components of the watch. As a child, the daddy’s daughter she was, Cathy was always fixing broken electronic appliances – most of which were too spoilt for repair.

She would later pursue a Bachelors in Computer Science after high school, all thanks to her high school Maths teacher who further instilled the more love for Mathematics and Physics in her.

“I had never done so much arithmetic and calculus in my life,” she confesses. Adding; “The love for numbers kept me going strong.”

After college Cathy would get her first industrial attachment after which she secured a place at East African Breweries Ltd, marking her entry in the corporate world. Like all the spaces she schooled and worked before, women were a minority even there. She still recalls that through her training and work experience, she has always been a minority- men have outnumbered their women counterparts both in school and at work.

“All through college and for the years I have been working in mainstream tech, women have been fewer than men. Always the minority,” she avers.

As an antidote to the disparity, she asks of those in IT to demystify stem right from primary school to expose children – both boys and girls – to such cases so they can grow with the curiosity of wanting to engage. Just like it is done in the sports industry like football and rugby and hip-hop among others.

She’s thankful to #Hernovation, what she says offers a good platform for debunking the mucho myths for women in technology.

In view of the theme of the IWD2020 that is #EqualForEach, she appreciates that it may not be achieved soon, but thanks the male figures in the lives of the few WIT with whose effort she says, the women have grown and continues to scale higher in technology. She’s thankful even elated for the support women receive from life partners and the extended family members, ‘village’, especially with child-rearing.

“To the fathers, brothers, husbands and sons of all women in tech, who take it as  a duty to accord their help to them especially with regards the demands of their technical career roles, I thank you,” says Muraga as a smile spreads across her warmly face.

Starting work as a cabling and networking officer, she then moved to configuring networks, servers and desktops and would steadily rise to leadership and managerial positions, where she currently is.  Looking back, she appreciates the foundation and having tested tads from different fields of technology as it is easier for her to lead her team better, understanding their different roles.

Muraga’s journey has however not been a ride in the park. She painfully recounts how, being a minority (the female among male) colleague, she braced for loneliness as she could not just vibe as the men. To remedy this, she sought solace in other women mentors, what she says, she’s since adopted as a give-back strategy to help women in her space faced with the similar trouble.

Her other challenge has also been getting belittled, partly because of her reserved personality. Her male colleagues could frequently ask her questions to test her intelligence but she affirms that she always answered so competently, for shame more than more satisfaction. Other belittling roles like being asked to serve tea or water for being the lady has also been part of her journey.

She says, “Do not let your colleagues see you as a woman before seeing you as a competent and equal employee.”

Now more than ever, Cathy is convinced that women are just as good as their male counterparts, if they all train and acquire similar skills. She urges women to not cow to their male colleagues discriminative demands. She instead asks them to appreciate themselves first as equally as good as their male work colleagues before they consider themselves as women .

Happy International Women’s Day 2020: #EqualForEach.