Keep Fighting for My Dreams and Pay It Forward When I Can
–By Fatima Gowher
Women of MENA (Middle East and North Africa) in Technology is a global nonprofit organization that aims to advocate equity, inclusion, and diverse representation for women in STEM. The Women of MENA in Technology Conference 2020 was held online this year, and it was nothing short of inspiring. They had an incredibly diverse group of mentors and attendees, more than I had ever seen, and every single one of them had a meaningful story to share. Their emphasis on being a catalyst for change and their common goal to help change the negative dialogue around women in the tech industry was empowering.
Growing up, I have always heard the importance of “having women at the table” but through this conference, I was able to see that in action. I was able to talk to, network with and learn from women who have worked immensely hard to be at the positions where they are now. Their willingness to share their knowledge and give back to their community was especially motivating.
One key concept was centered around actively fighting systemic misogyny in the workplace, which was a topic I had not really thought about. One of the mentors discussed how as women, we have to be very cautious of the roles we take on. And to make it a point to not take on roles we did not sign up for – it’s okay to say no to being the party planner for the office, it’s okay to not want to be the note taker during meetings. If you want to sign up for those roles, by all means do so. But, it is vital that we are mindful and don’t feel pressured to conform to the gender bias that are unfortunately embedded in the fabric of our society.
This conference immeasurably exceeded my expectations and vastly motivated me – as a Muslim women in STEM and a first generation college student – to keep fighting for my dreams and pay it forward when I can.
About the author
Fatima Gowher is a passionate first generation college student at Cal State East Bay and an aspiring software engineer with a passion for learning, teaching and developing programming techniques.
She is an instructor at theCoderSchool, a research assistant and STEM lab learning assistant at CSUEB, in addition to working on a research project with LA Tech4Good. And she’s got grit.
Women Of MENA In Technology is a nonprofit established in Silicon Valley in 2015 with a mission to close the diversity and gender gap in STEM by connecting, mentoring, educating and elevating Middle Eastern and North African women in STEM globally.