THE POWER OF THE PINK HARD HAT

Not long after the Girleng programme was conceived, one of the Womeng partners had the brainwave of taking a universal symbol of machismo, the hardhat, and making it pink. Imagine calling up a supplier and ordering 500 pink hardhats. Moosajee recalls some initial confusion on the part of the firm they had contacted. It was a masterstroke, though. “Taking something that is really masculine and feminising it in a really stereotypical way started making things really accessible. The girls loved it and it became a symbol for Girleng.” The girls are allowed to decorate the pink hard as part of a session on understanding themselves. Now women who are already engineers, fellows, and mentors want a pink hardhat, too. It’s becoming something of a symbol of transformation in the ever-evolving world of engineering.

of one of its partners, Unilever. Last year, a Girleng workshop was held in Rwanda. As the organisation gains momentum and recognition, it’ll move further across the continent. There is already interest in programmes for Nigeria, Mauritius and Ghana.

“The shift is slow, but it’s happening,” Moosajee believes. And now they’re thinking globally.

MOOSAJEE AND CO-FOUNDER

Hema Vallabh travel the world, representing Womeng at various conferences (like the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland) and take selfies wearing the pink hard hat in different regions and at different landmarks. “The campaign is about awareness. That engineering is accessible. Any girl round the world can become an engineer, and the pink hard hat is proof that you can travel round the world as an engineer.”

The second aspect of the campaign is for celebrities to take a picture of themselves wearing the pink hard hat on. Womeng can proudly count among its hard hat wearers Canadian Prime Minister and gender activist Justin Trudeau, Sheryl Sandberg (COO of Facebook), Unilever COO Paul Polman and Melinda Gates of Microsoft fame and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Seeing the collapse of STEM grades locally a few years ago, Womeng got involved with a project that outlined a 15-year plan to enrich and empower teachers – instead of students – to give the heads of maths and science classrooms the skills to deliver a high-end curriculum. In that way, teachers can effect ongoing change after just a single investment, instead of having to constantly train a new group of students.

Unfortunately, government can’t commit to long-term investment because of its finite five-year lifespan. But Womeng doesn’t believe in shortterm solutions, and therefore relies on the funding and support of privatesector partners such as Unilever, Unesco, Denel, Rexona, Barloworld, Jacobs Engineering and Sasol for collaborations to constantly make possible the various courses it offers. Embodying the philosophy at Womeng, Uni-lever set itself a deadline for 50 per cent gender equity by 2015, and achieved that. Unilever and Denel both offer a bursary programme for students to study engineering.

Moving forward, the organisation is looking to empower one million girls through STEM education, largely under the Girleng banner, with the rallying symbol behind it all being the pink hard hat. “One million sounds like a lot, but if we break it down, it’s not that many. Simply put, it’s 100 000 girls in ten countries over ten years.”

Reflecting on the many moments that have helped the Womeng team to keep moving forward, it’s hard not to share in their quiet pride at how things have turned out. As Moosajee says: “We didn’t realise the impact we could have.” PM