AFRICA NEWS AGENCY
STEPHAN-ELOÏSE GRAS
«Shaking up the global digital ecosystem to make it more inclusive and sustainable!»
Stephan-Eloïse GRAS, Executive Director of Digital Africa-
Entrepreneur and researcher, working on innovation issues on the continent for more than ten years, woman and leader of an organization whose vision is precisely that of a Made in Africa technology carrying a global inclusive growth, Stephan-Eloïse GRAS, Executive Director of Digital Africa, delivers her formula to leverage the incredible potential of female talents for the real economy in Africa. Despite their considerable role in the history of science and technology, despite media discourses and affirmative action policies aimed at valorizing them, and above all despite common sense, women are globally still far too underrepresented or even underestimated in the technology and start-up industry. They represent only 17% of the workforce in Europe. Within the top 10 global technology companies, women currently hold 19% of technology-related jobs and
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28% of management positions. And when it comes to female startup founders, the situation is even more striking. According to the SISTA barometer, in 2021, 24% of French start-ups were founded or co-founded by women. This figure is on the rise, but must be seen in the context of the fact that 70% of female founders choose to create a start-up with a mixed team, while less than 20% of founders decide to partner with a woman. And how can you blame them, when the venture capital economy favors founder teams, which raise an average of $3.8 million more than mixed teams?
«Women have not always been the «ground zero» of the IT industry
Although their names are not always taught in school, women have not always been «ground zero» in the computer industry. The forerunners of coding - Ada Lovelace being among the most famous - were women. From the 19th century until after the Second World War, computer programming work was essentially carried out and managed by women: in the 1950s, half of the positions in the sector were held by women. They remained in the majority until the 1970s. Until the 1980s, 40% of computer science degrees were awarded to women in Europe and the United States. In France today, women represent only 10% of computer science students, and the salary of a female developer is on average 16% lower than that of a man, while it is generally observed that women have a slightly higher level of qualification than their male colleagues! It is as if
this field has become more masculine as it gains in importance. The current under-representation looks like a regression that brings inequalities.
«Africa represents the high end of the spectrum in terms of women’s inclusion in the technology industry with 30% of professionals” But this regressive trend is not the same everywhere. According to the Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurship (MIWE), the country with the highest rate in the world is Ghana, with 46.4% of businesses owned by women. In Tunisia, almost 40% of engineering graduates are women, the majority of whom
WOMEN HAVE NOT ALWAYS BEEN THE «GROUND ZERO» OF THE IT INDUSTRY choose the IT specialty. Africa represents the «high» range in terms of inclusion of women in the technology industry with 30% of women professionals (admittedly, still too low). As on many other subjects, the African continent could lead the way. Because with one in four of the world’s population, and 35% of the working age population by 2050 in Africa, the digital economy of tomorrow will have to serve, employ and be led by African talent.
«I am committed to ensuring that all of our programs to support and fund African tech entrepreneurs at
