On the 8th of March 2023, the Corporate Affairs Department in collaboration with the Human Resource Department of GCB Bank PLC organized a Roundtable Talk to commemorate this year’s International Women’s Day.
The theme for this year’s celebration was “Embrace Equity – DigitAll: Women in the IT And Digital Space” and the talk focused not only on empowering and encouraging women to venture into the digital space but also to break the stereotypes created by society that seek to place men above women.
The talk, held at the ground floor of GCB’s Head Office was hosted by Grace Klubi, a software engineer in the S&IT Department with Emelia Sackey – Head of E-Banking/Digital Operation and Karen Opoku, a Senior Database Administrator as panelists and over 300 staff joining via Microsoft Teams.
The panelists shared their experiences and challenges faced on their journey in the digital space. Emelia Sackey mentioned that balancing work with social life could sometimes be difficult as a mother and a career woman. She however explained that she is still learning from other women on how to have a perfect balance and this should not deter other ladies from wanting to join the digital evolution.
Karen also shared her experience on how discouraged she was during the early days of her career journey by the response of others that sought to discourage her in the desire to pursue computer networking.
She said some people ridiculed her with provocative questions such as, “Do you know what it takes to be a network engineer?” but she persisted in achieving her ambition and advised the youth to press on to fulfill their dreams because there is more room for women.
“ICT is more about brain work. We all have brains,” Karen said adding that the digital space is not for men only.
The panelists were of the view that in spite of all the challenges, women who want to enter the digital space should be confident, work hard, read wide and identify mentors and areas they would like to specialize in.
