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Female students assemble Legos during a robotics a "STEM" learning section of Kabara NGO in Kano, Nigeria July 25, 2021. Picture: REUTERS/SEUN SANNI
Female students assemble Legos during a robotics a "STEM" learning section of Kabara NGO in Kano, Nigeria July 25, 2021. Picture: REUTERS/SEUN SANNI

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professions are still heavily male-dominated. Across all sectors globally, just more than one in four STEM workers are women. In engineering in Sub-Saharan Africa, the figures are much worse with women making up roughly one in 10 engineers.

If this doesn't change, women will remain in jobs that are likely to be replaced by technology, lower paying or less economically impactful. How do we get more girls in Africa into STEM so critical to feeding the pipeline of future engineers?

To discuss this, Michael Avery is joined by Waseemah Isaacs, regional manager for Knight Piésold in the Western Cape; Innocentia Mahlangu, champion of the SA Institution of Civil Engineering (SAICE’s) diversity and inclusivity portfolio, and Jeshika Ramchund, chair of the Consulting Engineers of SA Diversity Forum.

Business Day TV's Michael Avery.

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