There are women challenging the status quo and breaking every stereotype. Some of these women are behind the curtain – unseen and unheard of.
One of such women is Tomiwa – a Muslim seeking to be all that she can be as a software engineer at Softcom.
In November 2017, the American company, Barbie, commissioned as part of its Shero line for women breaking boundaries across different fields, a hijab-wearing barbie. This doll collection designed to inspire the next generation of young girls was inspired by Ibtihaj Muhammad, a decorated Olympic fencing champion and the first US Olympian to represent her country wearing a hijab.
The workplace is the necessary environment to recognise equal capabilities of, and to create equal opportunities for men and women. Tomiwa has proved that equal opportunities in the tech industry for both gender is attainable. But she is determined to do her best on the job, without necessarily seeking to walk on the path of barrier breakers and bold crusaders against archaic stereotypes.
A female software engineer should not be an oxymoron in 2018. More women, like Tomiwa, should be encouraged to take up opportunities in the tech industry, and in other male-dominated industries.
Softcom, which is engineering new apps to improve learning, living and working in Sub-Saharan Africa, believes the celebration of women expanding the frontiers of industry and shattering the glass ceiling of old perceptions should not be an annual ritual, but a daily rite.
The tech company, with partners like the federal government, NLNG, MTN and Microsoft, says every woman must be seen in the full range of her capacities and achievements.
