June 2021 Female Tech Leaders Magazine

ERNA ŠOŠEVIĆ
What are your suggestions to encourage more young women to pursue careers in Tech?
I think this is one of the biggest challenges of today’s tech industry.
There are a lot of benefits for both parties and if we look at them carefully, it is really time to
reduce gender differences.
Inspiration for girls to commit to a tech career starts in the classroom. Besides tailoring the
curriculum, women in the tech industry need to be made available to girls in schools and
universities, provide internship programs in companies founded and run by women, form
female mentoring, and create startup incubators and accelerators to implement diversity
reform until results begin. be visible and measurable. Of course, in order for inspired girls to
continue their education and training in technology, it is necessary to enable them to apply
for scholarships, and to give them at least basic support in the development of their idea.
Ultimately, diversification will not only help companies develop a larger, better and more
diverse talent pool, but can also increase innovation within their departments.
Are there any particular women in tech who have inspired you?
It is interesting how some people can inspire us and give us the strength to persevere in the
realization of our idea. My role model is Dorcas Muthon, a computer scientist and
entrepreneur, and one of the leading innovators in Kenya and East Africa. Her work is behind
some of most commonly used web applications in Africa, and her organization, AfChix, work
to encourage girls to choose to work in the tech industry and help women develop their
careers. It is known that in 2008 she was awarded for her work on correcting the gender
imbalance in technology, and last year they admitted her to the Internet Hall of Fame.
Her work and achievements are proof that the environment does not have to be a factor
influencing the success of us. Dorcas Muthon is my daily motivation to push the boundaries
of women’s opportunities in the tech industry of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
What are some of the biggest challenges that women in the world of technology face
today?
It is not a myth that development opportunities are not the same for women and men on the
technology scene. The enormous challenge is certainly the unwillingness of investors to
invest more in tech startups of women founders. Another thing is the assessment of the value
of the startup and the inequality in the amount of investment in relation to the percentage of
the share in the company that the investors are looking for.
Also, enabling equal pay and benefits would be an open call to create a better, more diverse
ecosystem that would attract more women to technology, including “flexible labor policies.”
From my experience, I say that the biggest challenge is to decide to take a path that is
difficult. There are many examples that no obstacle has been large enough for those who
want to succeed in their intention to break stereotypes and allow other women to reach
opportunities that were not possible before. We are a change and if more of us opt for the
tech industry, we will be reluctant to change things “from within”