Leveraging the Power of Storytelling to Highlight STEM Opportunities

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To help address these issues, mentorship and support groups can be quite beneficial and influential in promoting STEM amongst female students. For example, the WAAW Foundation is an organization that focuses on mentoring secondary school students – especially girls – through STEM outreach chapters, to increase the pipeline of African girls entering STEM careers in colleges across Africa. Other initiatives that provide STEM-related opportunities for women in Africa are also gaining ground, such as the African Development Bank’s entrepreneurial and finance training, Women in Tech conferences, and Girls Who Code programs. And in a different approach, women already working in STEM careers are helping other women via informal mentoring and support systems, rather than relying on the government or corporate involvement.

These programs and individual efforts can be beneficial france whatsapp number datafor female students pursuing or considering a STEM career. But how can an adult working woman with many years of employment still ahead of her change the course of her career to pursue new work in STEM-related fields? In some countries, women are comfortable with the idea of returning to a university setting or seeking new skills training online. Yet the technology gap in Africa makes it challenging for women to access — or build up the confidence to pursue — nontraditional learning. This presents an opportunity to support positive messaging and skills training aimed at women. For example, Merck Foundation is amplifying voices and introducing programs such as “More Than a Mother,” “STEM Program for Women” and “Educating Linda” in Africa and Asia, to provide more exposure for women in tech.

Girl Power Talk is another organization that connects women to STEM opportunities. We are consciously committed to hiring and training young women all over the world, but specifically in emerging economies in Africa and Asia. Since the onset of the pandemic, we have added women to our growing team from Kenya, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Uganda, Mauritius and Tunisia. While we create impact through our team members, we also create awareness about STEM and the importance of learning through educational programs and collaborations with on-the-ground organizations.

Regardless of which organizations are involved and which women these efforts target, their impacts can be wide-ranging, since not every working woman needs to be directly involved in a STEM field to benefit from additional education in technology and the growing digital economy. Those in more traditional industries can be impacted too: For example, a solo business owner would benefit from being able to access the internet and leverage technology for advertising, customer management and banking. Taking advantage of the growing digital revolution would offer female entrepreneurs a better chance of being successful in business. Yet despite these benefits, many African women are still hesitant to enter tech-related fields.