Young female coders from the Khayelitsha area of Cape Town met Twitter vice president for engineering Nandini Ramani and other members of the TechWomen team last week to learn how to pitch business ideas and use social media.
TechWomen took a team of 40 to the Bandwidth Barn, as part of a trip that has seen them meet South African ICT leaders and discuss the role of women in the sector.
“The idea is to bridge connections and encourage women and girls to pursue careers in Stem,” said TechWomen representative Kelsi Ward.
Approximately 60 girls and women attended the meeting, which saw TechWomen team – which also included professionals from Symantec and Juniper Networks – share their experiences of working in some of the biggest and most innovative companies in the world.
“I’m here to learn and share some of my own experiences,” Ramani said. “I grew up in India where there are a lot of obstacles for women and I still persevered. I fully believe technology is as important as good clean water and housing.”
TechWomen outreach programmes also took place in Johannesburg and Pretoria.
