Empowering Women in Technology in Uganda

By Irene Nandutu
Global Tech Leader
 
Here in Mbale, Uganda I have the opportunity to mentor Women in my community, it being a community of upcoming women in technology, it calls for extensive trainings and follow ups.  During my frequent meet ups with these Women, I meet groups of  Women Techmakers, Django girls for the Mbale chapter as part of my community engagements which I use as a means for fostering innovation, insightful and eye-opening discussions while showing significance of business, innovation and entrepreneurship. As a Global Tech Women Tech Leader representing Uganda the above can be easily achieved since the three different groups possess various ideas. Through meeting these women, they will became great contributors to our country’s economic success and will get empowered and embrace technology . 

In Uganda, the number of women who are creating, innovating, and implementing changes in the technology sector is still low. This gender gap has affected the Technology gender gap and as such it remains narrow. The tech industry continues to expand at an amazing  pace in Uganda and has increased the demand for STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics).

Although the entry of women into the technology field is happening at a much slower pace than that of their male counterparts. For merging the tech gender gap, Uganda needs to support and encourage women who wish to embrace technology, this does not affect only Uganda but the developing countries at large. We need to help young girls develop and recognize their passions for STEM. Since not every woman is  interested in Software Engineering and Computer Science.

Women extremely enjoy the powerful positions that are seen in the technology field and as a society we must do more to encourage them in pursuing these goals because we believe in increasing the visibility of tech women who are involved in tech engagements from presentations, collaborations, research, business  to innovativeness.

Note from GTW: You can read more around Irene and our other Global Tech Leaders on our webpage. We are looking for more women to represent their region of the world. We hope you will join us!