SHATTERING THE GLASS CEILING FOR WOMEN IN TECH - MEET AKIRACHIX
The world today is moving quite fast in the technological space. Many emerging countries, have decided not to be left behind and have made it a priority to improve access to technology for its citizens and to provide further access to education in STEM for girls. AkiraChix, a leading institution in tech for girls in Kenya, not only provides academic training for young women in tech, but also builds the capacity of their students by nurturing and empowering their agentic capacity to create a feminist revolution in waters charted pre-dominantly by men (the STEM space). At AkiraChix, young women learn that just by stepping into the program, they have broken glass ceilings in their community contexts and are changing the narrative on the capabilities of young women. It is a testament that young women and girls are themselves an agency. An agency of change and transformation capable of challenging, influencing and changing societal norms.
The status of girls as leaders and equal partners in STEM is still a far-sought dream. As much as the narrative has changed on the ` can-do ` attitude on girls in STEM, there is still limited opportunity for girls who dare the often perceived to be murky waters of STEM. This however is not the case with Linda Kamau and Maria Githinji who have carved out a space for young women in STEM to specifically code in the 21st Century. Many times, when one thinks of coding, one thinks of Microsoft, Google or Facebook. Tech giants often pop into our minds but there is so much more to the tech industry than what appears to be. Linda and Maria decided to challenge the norm and instead of settling in high-level jobs in tech across the world that they could have had, they chose to launch a center where they teach code with a practical approaches suited for the current job market giving the graduates a market competitive edge. Graduates from AkiraChix are recruited across the world in high level tech institutions and come highly recommended. So much so that girls interested in tech and coding no longer boast of universities they want to go to, they proudly say that they want to go to AkiraChix!!
AkiraChix has set out to create a generation of young female scientists. They offer a 10-month residential program that is action packed and detail oriented. Linda is very passionate about ensuring that AkiraChix produces the best coding experts into the market. She often tries to unpack the issues crowding the tech market space and the corporate space, a true advocate of gender rights, Linda is very particular about ensuring her class of graduates’ land paid internships. Noting that the applicants of the Code Hive Program are selected from largely underprivileged backgrounds, Linda is sensitive to the fact that we must embrace a multi-sectoral approach in wholly empowering a young woman to succeed in a capitalist society. As bread winners, young mothers, firstborns and sometimes the only one educated in their families, these young women face huge responsibilities back home. It is important to acknowledge these as feminist issues and are often barriers to many other young women to competitively exist in the modern work place.
The Code Hive Program is AkiraChix`s Flagship Program. In its beginning, the program used to run out of a bus that had technological appliances fully fitted and could only take in so many students. Today, AkiraChix exists on a great campus and has expanded further into East Africa! Working with already existing institutions passionate about girls in tech in Uganda and Rwanda, AkiraChix will be recruiting 70 young women into their program.
AkiraChix, an AMPLIFY partner, is breaking barriers in the tech industry. Yet, no longer should the stories of women and girls in the tech industry be of resiliency and overcoming barriers. It does not have to be this way for our upcoming girls. We urgently need to normalize the presence of young female scientists in their midst. It is almost impossible to imagine that which you know not of or that which you cannot see. As such, working through a multi-sectoral approach to increase the numbers of young female scientists is imperative.
Are you a young woman aged 18-24? Are you passionate about coding and tech? Let’s get our girls coding! Let us build a society of young female scientists breaking glass ceilings in tech and creating innovations for us, by us.
