In a March 15, 2015 post titled “Why STEM needs more women”, Mark Mushiva asserts that women must be encouraged, welcomed, and acknowledged in science because their ideas are necessary to a more advanced society built on innovation and sustainable design. He introduces his argument by comparing the science world’s ignorance of its own “gender oversight” to the medical field’s deadly failure to include women in clinical trials prior to 1993. Women are different, and that’s a good thing, needed for better design, he states.
KEY QUOTES:
“This could be because men are unfortunately the status quo and sometimes when you are the status quo, it is hard to realize that there is another “quo”.”
“There is a thing, a keen perspective, call it “gender innovation”- that only women can offer because they are women.”
“This is the key to sustainable design and ostensibly the reason nature breeds diversity, because it makes the biosphere more adaptive to an ever changing environment. This is what we’re missing out on, a plethora of woman-built inventions that make us more adaptable to change in political, health, technological, economic and educational ecosystems.”
“The best way to encourage participation of girls in STEM is to give them role models, increasing the prominence of women in STEM galvanises their enthusiasm to pursue STEM careers.”
“A more productive world of science would have us see a shift from an emphasis on the gender meritocracy that relies on ideas of victimhood and pity praise, to a realization that excluding women is slowing down innovation that would otherwise make us a more advanced society.”
WHO:
Author Mark Mushiva’s About statement reads:
“Otaku sub-culture enthusiast, gamer, developer, UCD research assistant, technophile and uncommitted investigator. Founding member at The Tech Guys.”
About The Tech Guys: “The Tech Guys is a startup that aims to develop the Namibian tech ecosystem. It was founded in 2013 to revolutionize technology adoption in Namibia, with the ultimate goal of enabling Namibia to have a viable and robust space economy.”
The Tech Guys website includes well written and researched articles on topics from bitcoin to nanotechnology, including astronomy, hardware, Google, robotics, startup, and more.
The Tech Kids is “a computer science class incepted in 2013 that is on offer to participants of the PAY Namibia program. In light of the urgent need to pay special attention to girls in the STEM fields, the CS class is aimed solely at girls for the time-being with plans for expansion in the future.” (PAY stands for Physically Active Youth.)