Driving everyday celebration of Womanhood - #ChooseToChallenge

Every year International Women’s Day reminds women the value they bring to the table and how they make the world a better place to live in. This year we have the theme #ChooseToChallenge and the whole world is tagging posts, blogs, articles – thanks to the easy reach of social media. I personally challenge the whole idea of just one mega celebration of women internationally – women need to be celebrated every day.

Remembering Ada Lovelace, the first woman technologist building an algorithm to run on Supercomputer; Madam C J Walker, the first woman entrepreneur; Saint Teresa, the kind saint from India popularly known as Mother Teresa, Florence Nightingale to set the stepping stone in nursing care and more. Women have overcome and challenge the paradigm of just being the primary caretaker at home and show their prowess in building a nation’s economy while lined with the plethora of intermediate challenges. The landscape has changed a lot – quite a lot to go, yet.

2021 is the year the world has started getting out of the claws of a never precedented situation of #covid19. We hear about monumental contribution from women like Milinda Gates, Angela Markel, Kamla Harris, Sheryl Sandberg and more listed in Forbes Top 100 in 2020 to Greta Thunberg, the little girl who has touched the hearts and thoughts of millions across the globe invoking the idea of saving the world, saving environment. Celebrating women’s day is not about identifying women as a special clan – it’s about claiming back equity, it’s about acknowledging that given a uniform ground to play, women bring in perspectives, solutions to problems and are easily adaptable to situations thrown at them. 

#ChooseToChallenge, as the theme goes, calls for challenging the challenges women in technology face – the premonitions thriving in the mind of men and fellow women of whether a woman can perform, when she is a new mother, newly married, having difficulties in life and so on. The biggest challenge to overcome is to be asked, given a choice and be respected and applauded for choices made. 

The pandemic picked up a new format- remote working culture. In the era of Smart Cities, Internet of Things, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, we #ChooseToChallenge distance, mindset, cultures and more, to reach out to the remote corners of the world - slow developing, under developed economies- and empower through education. IWD needs to drive a pledge in each one of us to extend our hands to our own channels, foster talents thriving in remote villages, towns and more. The pledge needs to be supportive, to impart knowledge, to listen and to extend opportunities. The power of internet needs to foster the power of humanity to drive empathy and build a human network, where women are a strong part of the whole equity.

Similarly in the field of cybersecurity, we need to make these adjustments and applaud the contributions of women in cybersecurity who are a rare breed and the equity needs to be pulled up way more stronger, faster. The seed of cybersecurity career aspirations and opportunities need to be sown across the diversity population, women need to be encouraged more. Spread the awareness, bring in platforms of learning and certifications that will introduce new formats to be aware as well as participate. Analytical capabilities of women are of major significance within cybersecurity and can be leveraged to make a difference to the world. I would like each of us to personally extend our helping hands to call out women in Cybersecurity, acknowledge their feats and help them learn, contribute and grow.

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