Women as catalysts for citizen development, corporate prosperity

The embracing of citizen developers by the IT industry could herald significant changes to the development of Nigeria’s digital future. But will this future involve more women? Citizen development could well be the opportunity to attract more women to use their experience and build applications through cloud-based, low-code, no code platforms. One of the reasons the International Girls in ICT Day was conceived was to draw attention to the critical need for more inclusivity in the tech sector. The gender disparity in the ICT workforce is glaring all over the world. Hence, this year the focus is on creating safe and reliable access to the internet and digital tools for women.

Inclusion in the tech sector has been a long-standing conversation, generating varied opinions and perspectives. It will take employers’ eagerness to develop both grassroots and in-house technical skills of women and men to fill the existing gaps in the sector. Male dominance in the Nigerian tech sector is evident from the underrepresentation of women in the top ranks. Of the 93 tech firms surveyed by the ONE Campaign and the Center for Global Development, only six had a woman in a top management position. Worse still, more than one-third of the surveyed tech firms employed no women.

Members of technology-development teams should represent the differing demands of the whole consumer base. Authors suggest that, at least in Western societies, women are half of the consumers of technologies, but just a few of them participate in developing these technologies. So, bringing women into technology-development teams would improve developers´ understanding of consumers´ needs and create IT artifacts that do a better job of satisfying those needs. “With greater equality, the tech world would benefit from both work titles free of gender and diverse perspectives — it would produce better products designed and marketed to women… If we do achieve gender parity in tech, it will create more opportunities to design technology for all.” says Jessica Naziri, founder of TechSesh.co.

Because tech jobs are among the best-paid professions globally, authors point out that addressing the gender imbalance in IT would contribute to the empowerment of women in social and economic life, which would help solve the grand challenge of social inclusion. This can also change the way women are treated in society: “If there were more tech companies led by women, I truly believe it would change the way women are treated in society — in part as a result of the values shown in their company’s services or products.” says Valerie Stark, Co-founder at Huggle.

Unfortunately, women are the most affected by cyberbullying. Having more women in technology can make it possible to create more protection policies. “Surveys show that in the volume and nature of trolling, women are attacked more than men, so they are more aware of these issues. I believe if women were in charge of tech companies, there would be more protection put in place for cyberbullying and trolling.” says Anne-Marie Imafidon, Co-founder at Stemettes.

Gender equality in the workplace is a mission of the community and governments. As a good example, the Australian government created a statutory agency (WGEA), responsible for promoting and improving gender equality in Australian workplaces along with many countries worldwide, for achieving: workplaces that provide equal pay for work of equal or comparable value; removal of barriers to the full and equal participation of women in the workforce; access to all occupations and industries, including leadership roles, regardless of gender; and elimination of discrimination based on gender, particularly concerning family and caring responsibilities.

Furthermore, a youth survey by the National Bureau of Statistics reports that young men are almost twice as likely to have a career in computer science and technology-related fields as women in Nigeria. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in Nigeria, women make up an average of 22% of the total number of Engineering and Technology university graduates each year. According to the same source, women make up roughly a fifth of people working in the information and communication technology sector. Project Management Institute (PMI) believes that structured citizen development programmes that open the IT development field to everyone, including women, will help companies drive inclusivity. The introduction of citizen development can help bridge the talent gap and accelerate digital transformation in Nigeria because everyone can contribute to tech solutions without necessarily learning to code.

On the back of connected devices, the citizen development movement has spurred innovation in software development. The low code, no code tech that anyone can use has companies turning to it for fast app development and deployment. Moreover, the arrival of citizen developers has alleviated the pressure on IT departments, leaving people with more formal IT qualifications to focus on mission-critical and core programming. Encouraging employee participation in technology development must not come at the cost of security lapses, data breaches, and governance risks. Citizen development efforts must comply with security standards and be guided by a governance strategy that sets requirements for secure applications to be created outside the IT function.

On the positive side, more technically aware and enabled people in the workplace will undoubtedly contribute to reinforced awareness and safer operational procedures. This means that organisations can capiltise on employee knowledge about company needs to produce enhanced outputs. The potential for well-governed, corporate-driven citizen development is unlimited. Helping women develop new skills and reducing traditional gender gaps through structured citizen development programmes can advance a company’s market performance and profitability. Technology is an increasingly important part of our daily lives. Movements like citizen development must be supported and fostered across organisations and educational institutions, so women and girls get an early start. The prospect of artificial intelligence having the same gender biases as humans can turn into a reality if we don’t encourage more inclusivity in ICT.

Baidu is of the Project Management Institute.