Why women should dismantle the hurdles in their own heads

Dar es Salaam. Esther Lubambi believes self-confidence is key to achieving success.

The Research Monitoring and Evaluation and Health Management Information System Lead at Marie Stopes Tanzania, says only the sky is the limit and this is exactly what she preaches.

Esther says having faith in one’s own capabilities is all one needs to succeed. She says women need to capitalise on self-confidence and that doubting themselves only hinders them from achieving their goals. She advises women to look out for opportunities and ensure they attain them.

“The biggest obstacle for women is that they are not ready to grab opportunities. They put up barriers by doubting their abilities and this prevents them from fulfilling their goals,” she says.

One of the barriers that Esther believes stops women from reaching their full potential is letting opportunities pass them when they come knocking.

“At my workplace and in many other places, I have seen opportunities arise that women did not take up at the same pace as men did,” she stresses.

Esther blames this on mindset and internal biases that are inherent to upbringing. Communities too are to blame, she says. She urges women to put more effort in tackling biases both within themselves and externally.

The mother of three serves as a good example when it comes to the issue of self-confidence. Despite coming from humble beginnings, Esther did not let anything get in her way to success.

She attended Mabibo Primary School in Dar es Salaam before joining Jangwani Secondary School and later Msalato Secondary School for advanced level studies.

“My background is in computer science. I hold a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Dar es Salaam, and I started my journey as a technical person in Information Technology.”

Later in her career journey, she switched to public health in the area of monitoring and evaluation and did her Master’s in Health Information Management, a Cohort between Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, University of Western Cape and Germany.

At Marie Stopes, Esther is responsible for designing and implementation of information systems, monitoring and evaluation and research tools for the institution. She oversees research and health information systems as well as monitoring and evaluation programmes. She supports all research activities and is responsible for reporting to donors and stakeholders.

“My role includes reporting on all our service delivery data, through research information management on what is working and why it is working. I am also responsible for all reporting to the programme and externally to donors.”

Esther leads a team of five consisting of technical people from research, health information systems and monitoring and evaluation.

She notes that all through school to work, the biggest challenge she has encountered is people expecting women to do less, which forces them (women) to work extra hard just to prove they can do better.

“It is easy for a woman to be judged first for being a woman ahead of her abilities. This poses a challenge that women must do more to make people realise they deserve an equal place as men at the table.”

However, she notes that one’s own mindset is responsible for being unable to achieve one’s goals and that women should work on changing negative mindsets.

On her achievement, Esther says; “My major achievement as a woman is first, being a mother to my three daughters. And professionally, it is being able to lead my team and to be part of the senior management, where I am able to advise and improve the programming, while at the same time inspiring other women to understand that the limit is the sky.”

She notes that one should be able to promote oneself and take failure positively because everyone is afraid of failure. Esther says without failing one cannot learn and improve.

According to her, only the sky is the limit for anything anyone does. She insists that believing in oneself is important to attain what one wants to achieve in life.

She notes further that it’s vital for women to help each other to attain goals and overcome barriers.

“I would not be where I am without the support and leadership of my family. My father always believed in educating and supporting his daughters equally as his sons, so it is crucial for the girl-child to have a system in place to support and nurture her dreams before she reaches the age where she can support herself.”

According to her, it’s important for the girl-child to have a vision of where she wants to be and work on achieving that vision. This includes working on attaining the necessary skills, building a support network and also working on their inner belief. She finally should believe she can actually achieve her dreams.