International Women's Day 2023: DigitAll: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality….. A Clarion Call for my Gender.

International Women’s Day is here and congratulations to all women and supporters of women! The theme for this year is DigitALL: Innovation for Gender Equality. It could not have come at a more succinct time given the growth and dynamism of technology. Technological evolution has been fast and swift in the recent past. Daily there is one update or upgrade in the technology world than we can keep up with. The use of technology is so advanced that we now speak in terms of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and others that were a distant thought since John McCarthy mooted AI in the 60s it has grown in leaps and bounds that it is now a reality. You might ask why is this all important for women?

Well, we first need to understand what these seemingly unfamiliar terms AI or ML connote. Simply Artificial Intelligence is a combination of big data and computer science to solve problems. Most of these tasks are typical human tasks that are typically arduous but now simplified in a more timeous and efficient way.  Similarly, Machine Learning (ML) is a subset of AI that helps machines learn by using a set of algorithms to help understand the data they are exposed to, essentially mimicking human thought processes and patterns. Apparently, AI is no longer the future, but it is now!

Although some schools of thought have argued about the loss of jobs due to AI and typically the first casualties are the women. But is this line of thought the fact? because this argument has been tabled before in the advent of computers, that they have the capability to make secretaries/typists a profession you find mostly women extinct but is this true? The answer is neither here nor there because the phasing out of typewriters or shorthand did not create a lack of jobs where people are willing to upskill, rather more opportunities were created,  for instance, you can be a data analyst, programmer, software engineer etc!  as a matter of fact, new skills were created leading to new jobs, however, those that were lethargic to upskilling were swept aside.

In the same vein AI will create more jobs than the extinction of skills because it is associated with efficiency, time-saving, requires less physicality (especially for the physically challenged), fraud detection etc. Women by their very nature often multitask having more to do on their plates regardless of all the arguments about gender roles. These innovations would be nothing if women do not get involved early on, as women upskilling to compete has become an absolute necessity. The theme of this 2023 International Women’s Day is a clarion call for women to stand up and open their minds to the revolution that technology is about to become if they are not already aware. It has already been estimated by PwC that AI has the potential to contribute at least 15 million USD to the economy globally by 2035. So women have to be in a pole position to acquire these new skills in AI, deep learning, big data, ML etc.

Based on the foregoing what can women do immediately? I will suggest that women start looking into some form of training in the AI field it might seem daunting at first with all the mathematical background, but it is possible to acquire basic knowledge not more than five days of online courses to advanced levels such as up to a master’s degree. Another extremely critical focus be on the young ones to catch them young by emphasizing STEM for girls because, that is the basis of AI. I am aware that in the industry various groups are making efforts such as Women in PENGASSASN who supported secondary schools girls to produce oil from jatropha in Abuja, Association for Professional Women Engineers in Nigeria (APWEN), Women in Energy, Oil and Gas (WEOG) etc have been creating awareness and supporting STEM programmes for girls. These gestures are laudable but as a collective, we have to do more.

Why is AI important for Women? Well AI deals with data,  no offence to the other gender but they wrote most of the world’s constitutions in many countries that speak to just that gender, the consequence of this might not be so obvious in comparison to the disadvantage women will be exposed to if a concerted effort is not made to participate in AI, why because we are dealing with big data that is supposed to interpret or mimic human behaviour, women need to get involved and ensure that issues unique to women and taken onboard early on, we do not need to carry placards for this, just get involved so that we can start the correction today, as we all know a stitch in time saves nine.

A research done in 2021 by Heinrich Boll Stiftung (my former employer) reveals that women are disproportionately represented in ML research, only about 10-15% are women, and of the known authors in AI about 18% are women. However, it is not too late to get on board, the theme of #IWD2023 is simply a clarion call for us women to be aware and participate, it is also an appeal to the world to #EmbraceEquity to create space that will enable women to thrive safely in the innovation and technological field.

 

Happy International Women's Day #EmbraceEquity.

 

NB: This piece was written by me for a publication to mark IWD 2023 but never got published