Women and girl’s participation in science and technology

The different levels of successes that women are attaining in various fields comes as no surprise. For years now, women have been at the forefront in many developmental aspects of life.

Today, Success looks at women and girls’ success in the field of science and the potential they have in the field.

There is no doubt that science and technology are vital for sustainable development. However, to achieve the desired results gender equality is an important factor that can act as a catalyst for such development. Despite its importance, there are several stumbling blocks that have denied women and girls the chance to fully participate in science and technology. Their exclusion is a global issue. Available statistics show that less than 30 per cent of researchers worldwide are women.

As the world celebrated International Day of Women and Girls in Science earlier this month, it is ever more apparent that women and girls across the globe need to join hands and raise their voices in reminding the world of their crucial role in science and technology.

Elizabeth Mrema is one among the women who are making strides in the field of science and technology. With her project “Gateway to Science Book” (GSB), her aim is to write for high school students in Tanzania. She initiated the project in 2015 after realising that there is a shortage of mathematics books in Tanzanian high schools.

After a lot of effort, she finanlised writing the book intended for Form Five students titled; ‘Gateway to Advanced Mathematics One’. “The book on mathematics is suitable for our local environment and it contains all relevant topics. We are looking for investors who can support us in publishing it. The future plan of GSB is to write books in science subjects including Mathematics, physics and chemistry,” she says. Not only that, but the ambitious lady also expects to initiate a project called “Tanzania Maths Queens” aiming at inspiring and encouraging young ladies to study mathematics, especially ordinary level students. “The project was encouraged by the small number of female students who opt for the subject. It is a crucial challenge and we should find a way to tackle this problem,” notes Elizabeth, who works as an Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Dar es salaam.

23-year-old Harrieth Peter, a fourth year student at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Science, is another woman proudly involved in the science field. Together with other four students they found a project known as Jamii Medical Awareness (JMA).

Harrieth says the idea revolved around the need to deliver health education to the community.

“Since I and my colleagues are all studying health related matters, we decided to team up and pursue the project. We fortunately got a platform called ‘Mawazo challenge’ through which we were mentored and supported, we were able to narrow down from provision of general health education to providing education on specific health issues depending on the most recent and challenging issues in health, as for now, our main focus is on drug resistance, brought about by improper use of medications,” she says.

Harrieth and her colleagues wanted to create a platform that could significantly impact people’s lives by providing relevant health education. They therefore decided to use a method that is more innovative and sustainable so as to be able to meet their objectives.

“Our aim is to provide innovative, alternative and sustainable ways of solving health related problems in the society. Jamii Medical Awareness was primarily a health forum that aimed at providing awareness and educating the community on different health related issues. It was never thought to be something that could involve team work in achieving its objectives. But also, we never thought of having a specific/ target area to deal with/ tackle among numerous challenges facing the health sector,” Harrieth says.

The group of girls are very proud of the creativity that they have incorporated into their project. They realised that most Tanzanians hardly spend time going through written texts and therefore most educative contents in written form do not achieve their intended purpose.

“We decided to be more creative by creating digital audio-visual edu-entertainment contents such as music, drama and animation series to be broadcast on television, radio and social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. Currently we have already produced music, drama and an episode of animation series (not yet officially public) all providing education on proper use of medication so as to minimize the challenge of drug resistance that we are addressing. We think this creativity will reach many people and will be more efficient in delivering health education,” she says. No project is without some form of challenges, as for these young scientists, lack of adequate finances to produce the audiovisual edu-entertainment contents is a big challenge.

“We are struggling to get donors and sponsors as well as partners to work with so as to make this project a success. Other challenges we face are lack of support, mainly in terms of mentorship and lack of a permanent office to carry out our project activities,” notes the medical student.

Aneth David, currently doing research in biotechnology and bioinformatics at University of Dar es Salaam, says her research looks into agricultural biotechnology to improve sustainable food production. Her research studies the contribution of soil microorganisms in functioning of “push-pull” farming system. Push-pull technology is used by smallholder farmers in Eastern and Southern Africa to manage striga, a parasitic weed, and stem-borers of maize and sorghum.

Aneth is a PhD student in Sweden (SLU) and Tanzania (UDSM). She is also the first NEF science ambassador for Tanzania and is part of the NEF Community of scientist executive committee. She enjoys mentoring and inspiring young people in science and technology, especially young girls, through different platforms such as social media, blogging and organizing workshops and trainings.

When not in the lab she reads a lot, enjoys travelling and sharing knowledge. She is passionate about science, education and gender equality causes. She expresses her passions and interests through blogging and social media engagements, where she is quite active.