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Can Women do Everything?
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00:00some days i get tired of fighting and i know you do too when will women be allowed to shape their
00:10own development without outside influence at home at work in society we're forced to fight twice as
00:17hard just to prove our worth for anything so here's the question if women could choose freely
00:22would they work care for family or do both when asked globally an overwhelming 70 of women said
00:29they prefer paid jobs this holds true across every level of society however the but always remains
00:36what happens to traditional gender roles so can women really have it all my name is fatu
00:43elikam loshi this is the show coming up on the show in cote d'ivoire we meet a bold scientist
00:53sustaining the agricultural value chain through laboratory-based solutions in our street debate
01:00women in the north of nigeria argue the complexity of womanhood in a society with far too many barriers
01:06and young girls in cameroon refuse to be boxed in their pursuit of a career in technology
01:12can we even leapfrog into a future driven by innovation and digital growth when women
01:21currently occupy only 22 percent of tech positions across the continent for a more equitable society
01:28we need to reach at least 40 to 50 percent women participation in tech so what has the lab got to
01:34do with yam a key staple crop in west africa its tubers may be stored for several months on farm but up
01:41to 15 percent of reserves rot away during this time one young woman wants to stop this in ivory coast
01:48scientist ajata has decided to save the yam despite growing up with no relatable role models now she has a
01:55solution for a staple that sustains women in her community i'm kamara ajata i'm 27 years old and a phd
02:05student in climate change biodiversity and sustainable agriculture i study plant diseases and how to treat
02:13them i've always been interested in agriculture because my father had a farm so right from childhood
02:23i was with him in the fields and the more you do something the more you love it
02:35i thought why not study yams because at home we were always getting yams and we noticed that their
02:41shelf life had dropped sharply over time when people see there's rot they just cut off the parts
02:50that rotten it's actually because they're trying to save the rest of the tuber so they can sell it or
02:56eat it i identified five groups of fungi that cause rot here in court d'ivoire the steps involved
03:08in that took me three years but at the same time i was identifying the fungi i was already looking for
03:14methods to get them under control i received the 2022 l'oreal unesco award for women in science for
03:25young talent on that day of the ceremony i was so stressed and everyone around me knew it because it
03:31was here in court d'ivoire but at the end i was happy the boy pesticide that i developed is simply made of
03:44essential oils plant extracts and water that's all the women who sell yams were at first surprised to
03:51see that something like this existed then they were dubious as to whether it would work
03:55they were worried i'd just get their yams wet but have no results and actually cause more losses
04:07so they were happy to see that it did work and to know they have an alternative that will allow their
04:12yams to last even longer in their stock i was happy to contribute something new
04:18i didn't expect to be in the media so much when i was in high school my role model was marie kuri
04:31she was white because i had no information i didn't know that african women also did science
04:37it wasn't until i got to university and my science lecturers were women
04:41i helped young female researchers in the laboratory with their manipulations i try to
04:49coach them a little their main concern is that they're african because they think if i apply for
04:58a scholarship will they accept me because for a woman at master's level you expected to be thinking
05:05about marriage family finding a little job so what's the point of going for a doctorate
05:11so i tell them if i've been accepted for a doctorate and a scholarship you can be too
05:19because we've had almost the same career path if i had to give advice to a younger me
05:24it would be go for it reach for the top
05:31a clear definition of when you educate a woman you educate an entire nation very nurturing and
05:37considerate like they say but we like to hear your thoughts on special topics so we put out a poll
05:42on our social media pages where we ask the question should more women be encouraged to
05:47take up jobs that are usually male-dominated 50 of you said yes to breaking barriers 33 believe women
05:55should decide that for themselves while 17 of you still think women shouldn't be encouraged to take
06:01up male-dominated jobs we've heard you now let's slide into our heated street debate in nigeria to
06:07hear it from the horse's mouth women there express their frustration of not only battling the obvious
06:12huddles in economic growth but also the hidden hustle of navigating biases a limited mindset and big
06:20expectations so our host edith kimani begins by asking her panel what's truly holding women back
06:31hello and welcome to the special edition of the 77 street debate this is a collaboration between dw
06:42and trust tv and we're coming to you from garki international market here in the heart of abuja
06:47nigeria's capital the big question is hustling for women in nigeria what is holding us back and of course
06:55i'll be co-piloting the conversation with the magnificent edith kimani thank you so much abdullah
07:01it estimates stating that nearly 40 women rather 40 percent of businesses here in nigeria are owned
07:07by women particularly small medium and micro businesses but what about big business are women
07:12participating there who better to ask than some women and i'm so glad to have a panel that is full
07:18of women today and i want to start with you zainab perhaps you can explain to us what the situation
07:23in nigeria is would you say that women are dominant in the business market women are really trying in
07:29the business market and i think we are trying to be more than the men now and i hope we'll be better
07:36so the question that we've asked at the top of this debate is are women being held back would you say
07:42that's an accurate assumption yes from religion aspect from cultural diversity from funding all right
07:50so we'll come to those reasons in just a short while but i want to speak to saada for a second
07:54here as an it specialist you are in an industry that is growing leaps and bounds are you seeing
08:01women participation in that particularly in the north as i not mentioned actually i'll say uh no it's uh
08:06it's growing but really not i think it's not uh favorable i think it's not what we want so give me
08:12an example of like an average day for you at the office what's the percentage of women in your industry
08:17in the north maybe 40 percent yeah the numbers don't look so good so let's ask the economist
08:21in the building here dr lindo how would you categorize the participation of women in the
08:26market in the whole of nigeria but particularly in the north they take up almost 30 to 40 percent
08:32of the total business environment in nigeria depending on the statistics you find so i think
08:37that's a lion's share you so you think they're doing really well yes they are doing well i don't really
08:42see the business environment being friendly for both genders is the problems are not gender specific
08:49yes women have some cultural issues in terms of northern nigeria or some religious barriers that
08:55prevents them from excelling all right let me ask umita who's the entrepreneur on the panel so we're
09:00hearing that the business environment is terrible for everyone and it's not particularly gendered would
09:05you agree with this yes i agree i think it's the economy in nigeria it's this year it's just a bit slow
09:10for everyone and so why do you think that women are not able to break the barrier from the small
09:15medium and micro businesses into being the owners of industry because men have already monopolized the
09:21whole system they try to gatekeep so that it's hard for the women to penetrate all right oh well what
09:28is your personal view on this do you think that women should be out there in the business market
09:32trying to fend for themselves making an earning women should stay at home and cater for their own
09:38children yes let me ask fatima here because you laughed when he said that he believes women should
09:45be at home so you find this hilarious and yet it's a reality actually it's what is happening let me say
09:50we women we don't have freedom especially from the north because one they said when you go out there
09:55you are not safe they can't let their wife to go out there because it's unsafe for them they feel
09:59insecure with their wife being exposed to other men okay so let me ask owl are you insecure about women
10:05becoming experts at in their own field no i'm not but protection their protection is is primary
10:13okay let me speak to ahmed who's a strategist and you work with women you mentor them so in some ways
10:19you are the antithesis of what our here is saying what do you feel about that because you're also an
10:24northern man first of all when we are talking about women in business for example looking at what
10:29i do here personally is that we create a platform which a lot of businesses actually showcase their
10:34brand but surprisingly 85 percent of the participants are women and then these women are killing it out
10:40there i want to ask zainab here for a second because you're pretty successful in your business do you
10:44feel like you have to down yourself so that you don't become too successful for the men in your life
10:49as a woman you can't be too successful i think a man will be threatened especially if he's your spouse
10:55so is this a strategy that you're actively employing in your life yes i am you have to dim your light
11:01to shine brighter okay umita do you have to shine bright like a diamond or do you dim yourself a
11:07little bit so that your spouse your partner your father shines brighter than you so honestly i don't
11:13have to because even if for example i tell my husband that i have a project say in the south honestly
11:19being the rebel that i am i would want to go so in a way i don't dim my light but i bring him on
11:24so that he thinks it's his idea to let me go so doctor we're hearing different strategies being
11:29employed by women just so that they can participate in the open market but what is the business case
11:35for that what happens when women are not allowed to fully participate to their full potential what is
11:40nigeria losing nigeria is losing a lot so not allowing them to fully participate it's an economic
11:46downturn for the country it has the capacity to improve global gdp by 12 trillion dollars wow so that is
11:5312 trillion dollars of untapped potential okay now i understand that abdulahi is waiting in the
11:59wings to come and sneak in but before he does zainab you mentioned financing gaps which dr jelindo
12:05here has mentioned how tough is it to get formal credit as a woman i think it's very tough we have
12:10that gap and we need to close it but i'm wondering dr delindo when the government is working so hard to
12:17create equality is there more that can be done policy support for women entrepreneurs and access
12:24to financing in terms of legal protection for women businesses and in terms of general business
12:31environment that will cater for the needs of the woman okay so abdulahi we're hearing a lot of things
12:37but i do wonder because there are women who also want to be taken care of i wonder what the people you're
12:43speaking to think about that yeah interesting i think a lot of people were scratching their heads
12:48with regards to the choice of words allow and support some people think you know there's no
12:54conversation about allowing women it's more or less like supporting women uh to get the job done but
12:59we're in the solution phase here right so i would like to get your takes on what you think can make
13:06life easier for women in business in niger women should just be allowed to do what they want to do
13:12without restriction what could make things easier for you um everybody around you should give you
13:17support and then who doesn't like to be taken care of right um what about what about the government
13:23what about the society what can they do to make you feel you know supported i feel the society especially
13:30needs to start accepting that women are also capable of doing things that men are capable of doing
13:35men should also be okay with women dominating in the male-dominated fields like mine cap in chief
13:41well if you ask awal he'll say that there's absolutely no problem at the moment with the
13:45way things are but i just want to ask you dr jolindo is there anything that can be done
13:49to flatten this line what we need to do is to provide equal opportunities for both men and women
13:55making sure that you target specific group of vulnerable women and have financing ready for them
14:02secondly having programs that will improve literacy education is also key most importantly is mentorship
14:08i love that and saada is actually already doing that participating in the fourth industrial
14:12revolution in it mentoring women what are the solutions do you have for us that the women be
14:17role models because in a society where the men them you know they have these trust issues and whatnot
14:24so i believe that whatever you're going to do as a person that starts you should do it well so that
14:29other men also will see and realize okay this is good for my wife for my sister and then secondly technology
14:36also because there are a lot of solutions i believe that only women uh that are into technology that
14:40cannot be able to actually you know tackle that particular part yeah i like that i started this
14:45debate with zaina but like to close with you what should women do to stay empowered to become empowered
14:50i think mentoring and that's why i started my podcast rise with zeroes where i bring a lot of
14:56established entrepreneurs to see their stories their challenges so that the ones coming up will learn from
15:02them and will grow well i dare not get any other comments after that beautiful closer abdullahi where
15:08are you let's close this debate what are your final thoughts interesting takes obviously but i also think
15:14that at the heart of the problem is the fact that the scale of the problem is simply greater than the
15:18scale of the solution but times are changing whatever you think about northern women or women generally
15:23speaking if we unlock that potential the economy is going to look much different greatly put we asked a very
15:29simple question at the beginning of this debate what's holding women back a lot of these women said
15:34men but there are other multi-layered issues but they also have the solutions of how we can go around
15:39this thank you so much for being a part of this debate and watching us bye bye bye bye
15:51i would also agree that mentors are very crucial in proving what's possible which makes me wonder who said
15:57programming isn't for women from the very start of computing women were at the forefront coding
16:03calculating and breaking boundaries this was evident in the role they played in ballistic computing during
16:08world war ii yet as technology advanced history conveniently downplayed their contributions take
16:15dorothy volgan for example born in 1910 she became a trailblazing african-american mathematician
16:21and nasa's very first black supervisor in 1949 volga not only mastered the math but also foresaw the future
16:28while leading the segregated west area computing unit her brilliance shaped the backbone of america's
16:34space program a story brought to life in the award-winning film hidden figures so the question isn't
16:42whether women belong in programming it's why the world ever tried to erase them from its history this makes
16:49it increasingly difficult to prove that women can excel in the field in cameroon 23 year old njinda
16:55salome is equally forcing her way through a programming course in a conservative society
17:01ever since 23 year old njinda salome decided to force her way into the tech industry
17:06she walks into this office every morning for internship in full stack web development
17:10salome didn't start out as a coder when she joined the university of boyah four years ago she was
17:20studying banking and finance but with few job prospects she switched parts today she recalls her past
17:28professional dilemma i was seeing nothing ahead my internship i did with banking banking and finance
17:35before going on the internship no bank allowed us in rejected but not discouraged salome decided to
17:43invest her savings into a programming course at that time i had just 150 150k and the fee was 350.
17:52despite limited funding salome managed to complete her course she drew inspiration from other female
17:58figures who had also been in her situation before where i was going to learn which is data girl technologies
18:05i already conducted some background interview about the ceo of that place and i realized that she so did
18:13accounting so i decided now to do it because i had some figure in front of me that has left from my same
18:21path and has been able to strive women make up just 18 percent of cameroon's tech workforce
18:28kindness who has worked with salome for six months links this imbalance to fear of failure they will
18:35always feel like oh programming i may not be able to learn the language even if i want to learn the
18:40language which language will i learn salome's ambition was not the barrier but her family's opposition was
18:48we decided not to sponsor she was doing everything on her own the auntie two will usually support
18:56me in pain her fee said she doesn't want to respect us let her go ahead and do what she wants after
19:02two years of determination and self-reliance salome has won her parents support i finally come to a
19:10conclusion that i would have been very disappointed if she too has followed our instruction and refused to
19:16follow her dream in kangaroo only three percent of women in it hold executive positions startups like
19:25data girl technologies are helping women break into the male-dominated industry through web development
19:31boot camps frida iposi co-founded the education startup in 2019 your ux is the core of design she
19:42has been training the next generation of women tech workers ever since we initially started with just
19:49you know encouraging young women to learn how to build basic websites realizing that there's a huge
19:54gap in the ecosystem women don't feel interested we decided to come up with the tag that says we're
19:59fostering the next generation of young or female tech talents across africa the center has trained more
20:07than 3 000 girls including salome who enrolled in 2022 she often stops by to give back this place is like
20:17family to me and as a form of appreciation i come here from time to time to spend some time with them
20:23and also to motivate the girls that have taken the bold step like me tech jobs can be hard for women
20:29to find but salome is confident she can achieve her dreams in a male-dominated field too many huddles to
20:38say the least however dare to dream and just do it but in the beginning we asked can women have it all
20:45a biological fact we can't ignore is that women are givers of life it is super okay for a woman to want
20:51to do that too and just embrace the things that make them feel whole they don't only give birth to
20:56one child at a time sometimes the result could be a double blessing or maybe even more what else can
21:03a superpower be let's go to igbo ora the nigerian town better known as twin city and enjoy the gift of
21:09life with our reporter samsen adeleke did you know that nigeria has the largest number of twins in the
21:16world happy world twins festival welcome to igbo ora where every home seems to have a set of twins
21:25in yoruba culture twins are called taiwo and ken ide my name is taiwo my name is ken ide
21:41oh wow guys isn't that incredible but wait a minute what is the secret behind multiple
21:56birth of twins in igbo ora you can't believe it the two women that i just greeted now both of them
22:08have twins and their children also give birth to twins so got your own quenny lasani
22:19baby so does that mean that anybody that eats this last time must give birth to twins yeah wow guys
22:24unbelievable if you eat this elasa you must give birth to twins you know but you know you're not
22:30jealous okay don't know you hey hey come on last time i want to be i'll shake my gelasa
22:36katijat salaudin and her husband just welcomed their third child who was a twin while the couple does
22:42not believe that eating elasa is the reason for the twin they still enjoy cooking it as one of their
22:48favorite soups
22:54okay
22:56i'm a fee
22:56a goosey
22:57mm-hmm
22:57what the water way way
22:59when you're coming back to home i'm a rain lasa after that i'm a dust
23:05so about to default to your dadda i'm a ja
23:07tabati jabin i'm a
23:10so about to you what that jato to you are okay dadda i'm a movie yeah i'm a pc
23:14so after five minutes or three minutes i'm wondering if this is actually is truly the secret
23:28behind the twin's belt in negora but i think to set the record straight scientifically we need to
23:35speak with the doctor what is the biological theory behind twins bath in negora though as
23:41out of now the gene that is responsible might not have been isolated but it's fine that
23:48genetically there is a genetic reason why the twin rate in negora is very high some researches have
23:55also attributed to diets but not just diet but we find that most of our diet maybe cassava and some
24:04of them may contain high maybe high folic acid and the rest and some substance that
24:12causes a cycle to break into two and eventually develop into multiple pregnancies
24:19the people of igbo ora celebrate their twins every year and it is clear that no other place in the
24:26world has many twins as igbo ora today is a special day hundreds of twins have come together to
24:32celebrate the world twins festival here in igbo ora even the deputy governor of oil state is here to
24:39celebrate with the twins every year we come around to come and celebrate that uniqueness here in igbo ora
24:45to face it with each other twins we are very kind of networking with each other and it's a very good
24:50thing for your state as a tourist attraction all of us we are twins and we are very excited to be here today
24:57what an amazing experience keep watching dw the 77 percent as we look ahead the challenge is no longer
25:06about asking whether women can do it we've proven that time and again the real question is will
25:12societies create the space for women to lead innovate and thrive on their own terms because when women rise
25:20entire nations rise with them let's continue the conversation on our social media pages as always my name
25:26is fatu elika muloshi thank you for joining me and remember the future is only as inclusive as we
25:32choose to make it this parting song is for the women who hustled until they couldn't hustle anymore ebony may
25:39have soul rest in peace
25:52so
25:59you
26:04you
26:06you
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