ISSUE 48/DEC2022 - Flipbook - Page 72
Africa’s Most Influential Women | EVERYDAY HEROES
The gatekeepers will always be there and my overall
overarching strategy is if we flood the market, then it
wouldn’t be full of gatekeepers and they’ll have to step
aside. And where you have nine gatekeepers and one
normal person, we should get to nine gatekeepers and nine
normal people. That way, we would have watered down the
gatekeeping. I think in terms of women being gatekeepers,
by virtue of being the same gender, it doesn’t mean you’re
not a gatekeeper. It doesn’t mean you’re not learning and
inheriting gatekeeping behaviours from other people.
Something I’ve written very overtly in the book which you
wouldn’t normally find in a tech book is – ‘As you come into
this space, be very aware of gatekeeping but also be very
aware of becoming a gatekeeper.’
Everybody has their privileges. Being a woman or a Black
woman doesn’t mean we all have the same experiences.
This is why I think it’s important for folks to be vigilant of
this as they start, and say, ‘actually I have my experience
and my perspectives, but what are the mechanisms I have
to recognise and value that difference in what I’m building
and how I’m doing these things? Be aware of the things
that you are and the things you are not, and ensure
you’re always opening those doors, so you don’t become a
gatekeeper. Also, it’s not enough to not be a gatekeeper, you
have to be anti-gatekeeping.
When women or Black women have created
solutions in the tech space and don’t get due
credit, how should they position themselves to
ensure they are acknowledged as the creators,
recognised and renumerated accordingly?
This is definitely one area where your tribe and your
community really matters. And I think there are lessons to
be learned as well. For example, there are people you should
not take funding from or do business with. This is where
having a tribe to check things and make those connections
for you, matters. Having that community and ensuring you’re
interconnected to people outside of your scenario and setting
is also important.
I hope women are able to connect with counterparts in
Africa, Europe, the Americas and Asia. This way we are able
to work globally to ensure we’ve got the upper hand or at
least, the right kind of leverage to ensure ideas aren’t stolen
or things are not undervalued. I also think it’s about balance
between all these communities. You also need to ask yourself,
what’s happening locally and internationally, and accepting
that everyone will be different.
What’s the kind of accountability do you want to
see in the tech space which will lead to the kind of
equity that is just for women across board?
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It’s across lots of different fronts. Funding for example is
an interesting one. In the UK, companies of a certain size
have to report their gender pay gap. They report to the
government and it’s available publicly and anyone can search
any company and see the gender pay gap in that company.
On International Women’s Day, someone created a twitter
bot, and anyone (including companies) that tweeted with the
International Women’s Day hashtag, the bot quote-tweeted
them. It pulled the name of the company and put it there for
all to see – yes, this is their tweet but this is the gender pay
gap they have in the company.
What was really interesting was how companies started
deleting their tweets when they saw the bot’s tweet about
their company. Some hid their tweets by using a different
hashtag, trying to run away from the truth. It’s things like
that, where someone or a company puts out a tweet and
another questions if it lines up with what they are doing
because there’s lip service and there is actual service.
I think there’s a lot more we need to ask of companies and
leaders alike. What is your leadership team made up of?
What does your supply chain look like? Who are the people
you are funding and supporting? What is the stay gap of
people, not just the pay gap, but how long do they stay on
average in your organisation?
There are different fronts we need to see accountability
on, whether it’s recruiting, retention, promotion, leadership
or funding.
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