“We’re told that we have to fit into a box to build our careers,” says Samantha Wright, a South African tech blogger and e-sports star. And that is wrong.
She was one of the speakers at last week’s Women in Tech and Digital Conference in Centurion. In contrast to almost all other technology events that are addressed and attended almost exclusively by men, this conference had an all-female line-up.
Wright, who goes by the name ‘Tech Girl’, says she got into blogging because she couldn’t relate to the content on other tech blogs. “Women were spoken to like idiots (on these blogs), they weren’t written for women.’
“The beauty of digital media was being able to find people like me. I wasn’t alone. Because of that, I got noticed and put in front of the camera to talk about video games for a living.”
She says women in tech are constantly being told they have to fit into a box to build their careers, to become thought leaders and influencers, and that is wrong.
“The only way to build your career online is by being as unique as you can be. When you’re engaging with people, opportunities pop up all the time because you’re real.
“So you can jump back into that box or you can start thinking more smartly about how you use social media. Something important to ask yourself is ‘does this feed my soul?’ If you’re adding people on Facebook, is it going to benefit you and feed your soul?”
Wright’s closing message to the close on 100 women, and a few men, attending was to ask themselves if what they are doing on social media platforms is actually enriching them or not. “Be more engaging, be more human. But please, don’t jump into that box. Don’t be the robot, the fake person on the Internet trying to fit into what someone is trying to sell to you”
Pervasive problem
A brainchild of Lynette Hundermark, co-founder and CPO of Useful & Beautiful, and Samantha Perry, Women in Tech ZA co-founder, both tech enthusiasts and veterans of the IT industry, the event aimed to provide a platform ‘for amazing women doing great things in the tech and digital space’.
“The (gender) problem is so pervasive,” said Hundermark. “It’s time for local companies and conference organisers to step up and ensure that their speaker line-ups reflect the diversity of both the sector and the country we operate in.
“As someone who is a doer in the space, I know there are great women role models and that’s what needs to be seen. That’s what we wanted to highlight with this event - great women who are doers.”
Perry said the conference had shown the depth and breadth of female expertise in the tech sector, and she also challenged the country’s South Africa’s conference organisers to make their programmes more representative. “People say they can’t find female speakers, but it’s not hard,” she said.
"After all, we've done two events, in two cities, within a month, with all female line-ups, showcasing over 30 top women in tech, and we're amateurs doing this on top of our full time commitments."
Kholeka Tsotsotso, CIO of the Development Bank of Southern Africa, in her keynote spoke about her personal journey to the top of her profession, saying she had landed up in the world of IT by ‘fluke’.
“Just before I completed my junior degree I realised there’s no way I wanted to be sitting behind a desk doing the debits and credits.”
She left her accounting degree in her final year, recalling that her parents ‘weren’t happy with me,’ and completed a coding course in 1987 at Van Zyl & Pritchard. She then taught coding at Zakhele Computing in Braamfontein.
Tsotsotso emphasised the importance of mentorship and continuous learning in getting to a leadership position.
“It’s important for you to have an understanding of where you want to be. You shouldn’t be shy to raise your hand when opportunity arises.