International Women’s Day hosts activities around the world around March and April to honor women across sectors and bring to mind some of the challenges women are facing in their neck of the woods which affect their ambition.
The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day on March 8th (IWD 2023) is Embrace Equity. Google’s Women Techmakers theme for IWD is “DigitALL: Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality,” honoring women and girls who are leading the way in technology advancements and digital learning. The Google Developer Group (GDG) community’s theme is also in line with #EmbraceEquity and is titled “Dare To Be.”
This theme complements the main theme for the upcoming 67th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW-67), with a focus on its review theme, “Challenges and opportunities in achieving gender equality and the empowerment of rural women and girls.”
It’s a time to recognize women’s incredible contributions to technology around the world, as well as a reminder to move towards gender equity in the workplace. As it turns out, it’s also the perfect time to have a look at the latest and greatest women-led tech and innovations. Below is a list of some of the most noteworthy names and contributions made by them.
- Marissa Horne
Capital One’s dedication to financial inclusion is reflected by Marissa Horne, Vice President of Tech Strategy and Governance, through her work, partnership efforts, and charitable contributions.
Taking into account the obstacles women face in the tech industry, Capital One created the Women in Tech BRG to empower and assist women technologists with mentorship, education, professional development, and networking. Hispanics in Tech and Blacks in Tech were born from this.
- Tammy Yang
Tammy Yang is the founder and CPO of Numbers Protocol, a distribution system that allows organizations and content creators to identify and verify digital media files.
In an interview, Yang mentions that the team plans on expanding the supported file types for the app, which was launched in 2022.
- Odunayo Eweniyi
PiggyVest is the very first digital platform to facilitate personal savings and investments in West Africa, which is a leading fintech company in Nigeria today. The same team who started Piggyvest worked on PushCV, a human resources, and job placement platform.
Co-founder of PiggyVest, Eweniyi is a tech entrepreneur who wants to do more than just provide fintech solutions, so she is empowering female entrepreneurs. In an interview, Eweniyi said being outnumbered by men in school didn’t hold her back.
- Eloho Gihan-Mbelu
In January 2021, Odunayo Eweniyi co-founded FirstCheck Africa, an investment fund and VC community founded by and for women, with Eloho Gihan-Mbelu (nee Omame).
Gihan-Mbelu is a passionate advocate of gender inclusion in Africa’s venture capital ecosystem and is former MD/CEO of Endeavour Nigeria, an entrepreneurship networking platform.
- Winnie Lee
Winnie Lee cofounded SpeadIt with her partner Timothy Ng. SpreadIt is Hong Kong’s biggest platform for micro-influencers and a network linking brands with bloggers to promote their products on social media.
