African Women on the Rise

A three-day First Conference of African Women in Science and Technology began Wednesday in Johannesburg, South Africa. The purpose of this conference is to bring together leading female scientists to discuss their importance in Africa’s development. Botlhale Pema is an advisor on African affairs. She states the purpose of the conference was to bring more African women into science and technology fields. While speaking about the conference she says the main focus of the conference is to figure out what areas are holding back more women from entering the science and technology field and try to create a program that will fix that problem. Pema said this conference is not the first acknowledgement to the lack of female participation in science and technology. The African Union held a summit of heads of state and government and decided that the number of women and youth active in science and technology needed to be increased. 50 percent of Africa’s population is women but in almost every part of society, they are behind. Pema says she realizes that because of the serious lack of female participation, a statistic is not even available to measure participation. The Conference of African Women in Science and Technology is looking for role models who can encourage other women to continue their studies in science and technology. Being that they have achieved in a field that is known as ‘slippery’ the women attending the conference are already seen as role models. Pema says the African Union is determined to see to Africa’s development.

Science and technology are two fields that are known as being hard. It takes serious dedication and effort to succeed in those fields. It’s always positive when time and effort is put towards a positive cause. Being African American, I can relate to the statement that African women are a large part of society but behind. This is sad but true. To know that someone is working diligently in the form of a conference is great. It has been said there is power in numbers.

http://www.voanews.com/english/Africa/2007-08-30-voa3.cfm