Young female tech enthusiast and Lead for the She-in-Tech project run by Noni Hub, Miss Winifred Zoyaar has observed that women are offered menial job roles at workplaces because they do not have the expertise to use technology devices.
“Women are given menial jobs because of lack of knowledge in ICT, you have a secretary but they have to look for somebody to be doing the typing work,” she said.
Miss Zoyaar said this in an interview with Info Radio at the sidelines of a capacity strengthening training organized by the Ghana Hubs Networks to train staff of innovation hubs in Wa.
She said the phenomenon has led many women behind in the field of work and thus encouraged women to venture into the world of technology all chest out.
“And if you learn technology, women can in the near future sit at home as the housewife that every man wants and still work to earn something to support the family.
And if you educate a woman in ICT, definitely the children will benefit from it. If my mother had known how to use the computer, I won’t be lagging behind, I would’ve been a pro by now,” Miss Zoyaar intimated.
Miss Winifred Zoyaar who was also the Research and Development Officer for Noni Hub, an innovation and IT hub in Wa, dispelled the notion that ‘the computer is not meant for the woman’ as she averred that the computer is actually the woman’s.
“Computer is for the woman. Every day we do calculations on how to cook, how to prepare a meal, how to wash and how to even do our daily stuff, and that is what the computer is being programmed to do.
“So it is for us! And, I think a woman built the first computer because women do a lot of calculations and programming in their heads as compared to men,” she emphasized.
Miss Zoyaar also observed that women's participation in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the Upper West Region was slow and appalling.
She thus urged young women and girls to undertake short courses in ICT to enhance their knowledge and give them a competitive advantage in the field of work.
Meanwhile, Mr Josiah Kwesi Eyison, the CEO of iSpace Foundation, noted that innovation hubs were ready to offer training support to females and people with disabilities (PWDs) who developed an interest in learning ICT.
“Women and people with disabilities should not be afraid to come into innovation spaces because we need you, you are important to us.
“We have programs for the women but women, the girls and people with disabilities have to come, the more of them that come, we have enough space to accommodate them,” he said.
Commenting on women’s participation in ICT, Mr Eyison said “When you look at the numbers from what it was before to what it is today, we are making progress but we still do not have enough women in it.”
He urged women to leverage their smart mobile devices to undertake online learning courses and conduct business.
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