Int’l Women’s Day: Ibadan girls charged to embrace STEM, challenge stereotypes

On the occasion of the 2025 International Women’s Day, some female students across Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, have been encouraged to take up Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) courses and careers and to challenge gender stereotypes that would hinder their careers and lives.

The Black Girl’s Dream Initiative and the Global Shapers Community Ibadan were the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that organised the event in Ibadan on Wednesday, tagged ‘Inspire her future’, a one-day STEM workshop for young girls in commemoration of the 2025 International Women’s Day aimed at “Accelerating action for equality and progress for all women and girls.”

The girls represented at the event were from nine secondary schools across Ibadan. The schools were IMG, Oke-Bola; Oluyole High School; Quiver of Grace Heights; IMG Grammar School, Oje Igosun; Ikolaba High School; IMG Grammar School, Yemetu; Ikolaba Grammar School; Oba Akinbiyi High School; and Methodist Junior Grammar School.

The chairperson of the event and Director of IT in Oyo State civil service, Engr Mrs Raheemat Adabanija, commended the two NGOs for inspiring and empowering the girls with STEM knowledge, adding that girls need to be caught young inspiring stories told through life experiences of those in technology and STEM careers.

The chairperson stressed that more STEM awareness for the young needs to be initiated through social media, and negative gender stereotypes about girls as they relate to tech and STEM education should be challenged for the betterment of the girl-child and society.

The keynote speaker and CEO of Apps and Scripts Technologies, Dr Adekunbi Omotoso, urged the girls to be their inspirations and not allow anyone to define them with any kind of stereotype.

Dr Omotoso emphasised that STEM is the future and that black girls can shape that future. In light of this, she told the girls that their dreams are valid, that they should be creative, aim high, and stop seeing themselves as vulnerable.

“We need a lot of innovations from you girls. Nothing is too big for you to achieve. The future belongs to you. Think big and play big,” she charged the girls.

Another resource person, an engineer and scholar, Temilade Adelakun, who spoke virtually, encouraged the girls not to give up on their dreams. She noted that STEM education and careers are not only for boys and that young girls can be the best in that field just like other women are doing well in the field.

Lawyer, poet, and founder of The Black Girl’s Dream Initiative, Karimot Odobode, who speaks virtually, performed a spoken word piece titled ‘Dear Woman’ from her published poetry collection ‘A Woman Has Many Names. ’

Odobode enjoined the girls, through her poem, to look up to and inspire them to be like the great women Nigeria and the world has produced. She charged them to be whoever and whatever to wished to become.

A panel comprising business consultant and marketing strategist, Pamilerin Akintayo; tech enthusiast and petroleum engineer, Ubaybdah Abdulwasiu; and STEM mentor and management consultant, Fehintola Oladele, exposed the girls to the basis of STEM education and careers through the life and work of the panelists.

The panellists listed curiosity, mentorship, role modelling, and research as some of the ways young people can develop an interest and succeed in STEM-related studies and careers.

They urged the girls to show themselves as people who are willing to learn so that they can get the necessary support from their parents and mentorship from mentors to become the best they can be in the STEM profession.

“Leverage every information you can get, and strive to be better than your current selves and environment,” the panellist charged the girls.

During the hack-a-thon session, the girls were arranged into groups to discuss and brainstorm on how they can use the STEM knowledge they have acquired to proffer solutions to education, health, and environmental issues in their communities.

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