Photo: HumanIPO I Suhaifa Naidoo at the Geek Girl Dinner in Cape Town.
“It is very difficult to introduce yourself to high school students,” Suhaifa Naidoo, Chairperson at Geek Girl Dinners Cape Town, said when opening the group’s first meet of 2013.
Naidoo explained approaching schools is more complicated than universities because principals do not consider it their role to promote the event and a general low response from institutions.
“More younger females need to know that they have a career in technology and that it is not solely for men. I also believe that this needs to be made clear to young girls at home first,” Naidoo told HumanIPO.
“Parents need to make their daughters aware of all the options available to them and encourage and support their passion for technology.”
She believes statistics show a decreasing success rate of females that initially sign up for subjects or programs like Computer Science.
Currently attended by young and older women, Naidoo hopes to see more of the younger generation at the next dinner on March 26, which will be focused on female developers.
The event is generally experienced as particularly empowering for females.
“It is a celebration of how far I’ve come,” Sarah Mills, Founder at Simply Sites Design and Business Support Coordinator at Bridge-PT, told HumanIPO.
Geek Girl Dinners is an international initiative that gathers tech-interested females with motivational networking events.
