Equity is about economics
May 12, 2017
I’m embarrassed at how few women I’ve interacted with professionally in covering African’s tech and innovation scene. It’s got me wondering why such a stark gender imbalance has persisted in Africa and in other more developed parts of the world.
Silicon Valley tech giants have recently been taken to task for failing to create an inviting and enabling environment for women .
At the World Economic Forum on Africa hosted in Durban, South Africa, I caught up with two senior executives of two leading global tech firms to get a sense of what they made of the progress, or lack thereof, in addressing gender inequity within tech.
Charmaine Houvet, public policy director for Africa at Cisco, quoted views published in the Harvard Business Review: that gender equality is not a women’s issue, but rather a political, economic and social opportunity.
While she has observed more and more corporate leaders bump gender equality up on their list of priorities, the industry isn’t yet convinced that diversity is a key ingredient for ensuring business success. She cited the McKinsey Women Matter Africa 2016 report which says companies with more women executives tend to be more profitable – by as much as 20%.
