SMART MINDS Girls and women pushed into science fields
Culture is a barrier to getting more women in STEM
Women are an untapped pool of labour with great potential, says telecommunications, radiofrequency, and wireless communications engineer Tumo Fortune Kedumele, who also works for BIUST.
For that reason, Kedumele contends that it is important to change the narrative and develop a system where women and girls are exposed to and given platforms to enter the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).
Kedumele says that in most cases, culture has limiting factors that contribute to women and girls’ reluctance to enter STEM fields.
“How girls are raised and socialised has a bearing on their outlook in life and the choice of careers they pursue and how far they ascend in their fields.
“It is important to mobilise from grassroots and at the community level to encourage a cohesive culture where more women and girls have access to platforms to pursue STEM fields,” she says.
Kedumele boasts nearly a decade’s experience in the field, with interests in research and innovation development and CubeSat technology, and is exploring interests in radio astrology and space sciences.
She is the national point of contact for the Space Generation Advisory Council which focuses on radio astronomy and data science training. Kedumele, who completed her BGCSE at Kgari Sechele Secondary School in Molepolole before going on to the University of Botswana, had always loved maths and science.
When she completed school, she already had an idea of the field she wanted to pursue. She explains that the support of her family, who saw her academic potential, also helped her pursue her chosen passion with ease.
She also had the foresight to surmise that science would be in demand in the future and that the world and Botswana would appreciate the intellect and skills of individuals qualified in science fields.
The engineer is also the director of Women in Stem (WiS), which she founded in 2018. She established WiS to try and create a support network of women in the fields of STEM and also encourage girls to take on STEM subjects, and inculcate love and passion for science.
She reiterates that the common challenge in Botswana society is that women and girls are sometimes made to feel intellectually inferior and told that maths and science subjects are too difficult for them.
“Girls are just as capable of pursuing careers in fields of science because they have the intellectual capacity that is just as good as their male counterparts. It all begins at home, where girls should also be encouraged to work hard and reach their full potential,” she says.
She explains that cultural and gender dynamics are changing and the world has evolved so much that gone are the days when some jobs or careers were considered for women and others for men.
Kedumele says that getting more women and girls into the fields of STEM was not just about gender representation but also including fine smart minds in development and industry mobilisation, and also contributing to economic growth.
She notes that in the current market, it is important for professionals to continuously improve their skills and to refine their craft in order to keep up to speed with trends.