Johannesburg, 25 Aug 2015
Despite developments made in gender equality, many gaps still exist between males and females in the areas of innovation and entrepreneurship. The Innovation Hub hosted the Women in Innovation and Entrepreneurship Breakfast on Friday, 14 August 2015, with the theme "Inclusivity of Women in Innovation and Entrepreneurship'' to address the challenges that still remain.
The objective of the event was to bring together women in innovation and entrepreneurship that are making a positive impact beyond their titles to address mutual challenges and share relevant information that empowers women to improve their own lives and their communities. The event was also attended by high school learners and tertiary students from the T-Systems ICT Academy and TUT Soshanguve to expose them to the journey of entrepreneurship and innovation from women they aspire to emulate.
Speakers such as the Deputy Minister of Small Business Development, Elizabeth Thabethe, Managing Director of JT Communications Vanessa Perumal, Former Miss SA 2010 Bokang Montjane all shared their inspirational stories. Panel members included Rebecca Munyuki, Chairperson of IBM Women of SA, Debby Edelstein Founder of Quality Life and Kurisani Maswanganyi Managing Director of Kulani Engineering Consultancy among other phenomenal women. The breakfast was used as a platform to ignite stimulating discussions on the barriers that prevent women from being entrepreneurs; and to showcase programmes that aim to empower women and bring about social change.
Knowledge gaps also remain one of the obstacles hindering women's role in promotion of sustainable development, economic growth and innovative enterprises. South Africa needs to do much more to improve the ecosystem for its female entrepreneurs, increasing access to ICTs, capital, new markets, bank accounts, financial training and skills programmes to women across all sectors.
This is backed up by the report conducted by the Seed Academy, Startup survey results 2015, which note that despite women making up over 50% of the population in South Africa, female entrepreneurs are still in the minority in a largely male-dominated start-up culture, with 65% of businesses owned by males.
In spite of all this, a new research from the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the UCT Graduate School of Business shows that South Africa's women entrepreneurs are performing better than their male counterparts on the world stage, and since key drivers for economic growth and innovation lie in SMEs, utilising all human resources by government, will not only add to gender equality but will eliminate wastage of talent as well.
Running in parallel with the session, Raeketsetsa ("Girls that are doing it for themselves") showcased their robotics and mobile applications where learners were orientated to ICT applications and how they can best utilise these.
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