As the world celebrates the 2023 International Women’s Day, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) called on women at all level to focus on self-actualization and challenge gender stereotypes.
CITAD gender officer, Zainab Aminu, made the call during a sensitization lecture on celebration of 2023 International Women’s Day with the theme: “Embrace equity, digital innovation and technology for gender equality.”
Zainab Aminu said that women need self-development and self- actualization because they had been almost shut out of the technology and digital space and some careers were seen only for men in the society.
Aminu said that many professions in the recent past had been stereotyped for men, but a few women had by hard work despite discriminations broken the such limitations and proved themselves.
“Women are lagging in many areas of life, socio-economic, political facets. And we must remember that God gave an equal world to all humans, the same platform and opportunities to actualize our fullest potential,“ she said.
The gender officer also said that a call to challenge stereotypes must begin first with women because women were fed with norms through the cultural disposition as enshrined in the society.
While speaking CITAD Community Network Coordinator Malam Haruna Adamu Hadejia, stated that it is common to have people misconstrue the Tech industry as a very difficult pathway to delve into for women, hence the general notion that the tech industry is for the male gender more than the female.
According to Haruna Hadejia, it is imperative that women and girls are not left behind in the digital and technology revolution going on around the world for development.
This year’s theme “is a clarion call for government, policymakers, stakeholders, and private sectors to look into how to bridge the gap in digital skills, and education for women and, and ensure gender parity. We can no longer leave the female gender behind anymore if we are actually seeking a secure society where inclusion is germane,” He said.
March 8 is annually celebrated as International Women’s Day all over the world. The United Nations (UN) theme for this year’s IWD is, ‘DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality’.
