BY JENNIFER VOGT
Seeing the Road Ahead: Women in the Driver’s Seat for Change
Editor’s note: This post is part of the NextBillion Series “By Women, For Women: Leaders and Innovations in Gender Equity“.
The Soronko Academy, founded by Ashoka Fellow Regina Honu (nee Agyare), exemplifies innovative women’s organizations that are challenging industry standards and stereotypes. Soronko provides women and girls with skills, and Regina takes seriously the role Soronko plays in modeling how they can enter into the industry.
Soronko has already trained more than 4,500 women and girls in eight regions in Ghana and Burkina Faso to code. From helping to develop hard skills, to convincing families and communities that coding offers real jobs and tangible benefits, Soronko is focused on challenging industry standards and breaking stereotypes.
Women in Tech is Soronko’s latest program to disrupt the gender norms in the industry. She lobbies tech companies to include more women in hiring, and shows them the benefits that women with digital skills, who are able to solve actual real-world problems, can contribute to tech design and industry. As Regina says, “Women are the majority consumers in the world. They should be involved in designing the products that get consumed.”
