It’s no secret that women in tech are grossly underrepresented. A good example is a survey conducted in 2013 that concluded that around 11.2% of all coders are women. Damn.
This is especially tragic because in many ways, women routinely outperform their male counterparts in the technology space. I read not long ago, that women are considered better coders on GitHub, but only if they hide their genders. This throws light on some of the gender biases that still plague the technology industry, worldwide.
Wednesday (March 8, 2016) was International Women’s Day, and to celebrate it, Google organised a 2-day women-only training workshop on Digital Marketing for female business owners in Nigeria.
Around 50 women attended the event, organised in collaboration with Poize Media, at the Google Nigeria office in Lagos, on March 8 and 9. The entrepreneurs from a wide range of fields/circles of expertise, came for one thing: to expand their knowledge base, and improve their business performance using digital technology.
The training was conducted by female members of the Google Nigeria team. The Country Manager opened the session, and painted a picture of what the digital landscape looks like today, and the Head of YouTube for Africa talked about the importance of Social Media, especially video in marketing/promotion.
The Sales and Marketing leads talked about Search Engine Optimisation, Content Marketing, Content Marketing, UI design, Paid advertising, Strategy and “how businesses can win moments that matter with customers”.
Obviously, the participants loved that Google invested time and resources into the programme. They said things like, “Thanks! You guys have given me a great gift. I have been struggling to learn this but now I have clarity”.
“It’s good to know that Google can come down to my level. I felt Google was for multinationals but now we know there is a lot of love for small business owners.”
I think it was a great effort by the Google Nigeria team. Hopefully, other companies will take a cue and actively encourage diversity in their workplaces.
(._. )( ‘-‘)
Oh, did I forget to mention there was cake?
