According to UNDP, globally women in tech only make up 28% of the roles in the corporate sector and 30% in Sub-Saharan Africa and in such industries, there is a huge need to bridge the gap in gender equality. Confidence Staveley runs Cybersafe Foundation an organisation that creates opportunities for girls and we had the distinct pleasure of having her as one of the guests for the OVAReact Podcast.
We had an exhilarating conversation about her journey as an African woman tech. Below we have highlighted three steps she took to break into tech which has now eventually led her to be named the Cybersecurity Woman of the year in 2022 and is the first African woman too to receive that award.
1. Map out your education plan
Confidence talks candidly about how she discovered her love for computers by accident, whereby during her gap year she attended a computer school and this is where she learned about coding and programming languages. Her excitement grew every time she learned something new and during the process of learning is when she was sure this was what she wanted to do. Before embarking on pursuing IT as a degree she did her research on the kind of courses she needed to do to perfect her ability and because her parents at the time could not afford the kind of courses she needed to do she also applied for scholarships, and these scholarships then indeed helped her accomplish degree to Master to level.
So if you are interested in tech or even STEM subjects as a whole taking Confidence journey as an example spend time doing your research on the courses that exist, read about them and even explore what kind of career they can lead to and what those jobs would entail because doing so will help you identify where your passion and drive exists and you will therefore avoid wasting time and money on a degree that will not help you accomplish what you truly desire to do.
"Good, better, best! I will never rest until my good is better, and my better is best"
Confidence Staveley
2. Don’t be intimidated by the men
When one is pursuing their course in tech focus on what you want to do and don’t be scared to select something current, different and challenging because in the world of tech things are always going to change and you are better off being ahead of the curve than having to chase behind it. Confidence talked about how the men in her classes would challenge her for her decision-making for the courses she chose and would try to win her off doing them because they would be too difficult but because she was sure of her abilities it was easy for her to silence the neigh sayers and continue forth with pursuing her course. As a result of doing so, she not only got the highest pass for her degree but those choices led her to break into the Cybersecurity field.
“I am a problem solver, nothing is too difficult for me to master!”
3. See yourself as a problem solver
When the girls who attended the courses run by Cybersafe Foundation they are taught a mantra to keep affirming and it states: “I am a problem solver, nothing is too difficult for me to master!”. This is something Confidence encourages women to iterate within themselves to help break the myths of women not belonging or not being able to do certain things for when you see yourself as problem solves then you begin to realise through practice and consistency you can do and achieve just as much as the male counterpart. So we must rewire our minds, change our thinking and adopt a positive mindset, these three alone can help any woman navigate through successfully in what has been deemed as a man’s world.
May we learn from Confidence and be the type of women willing to change the narrative showing other upcoming females that they too can be in pursuit of the same goals regardless of their gender. The above is but a hint of the extraordinary conversation that took place with Confidence, which we encourage you to listen to in full through the following links below. While you're at it do subscribe to the podcast channels to receive regular updates when we upload new episodes. You can also listen to episodes when they air LIVE on Capital FM Kenya on Monday from 10.30 PM EAT.
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