Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon has been a pioneer in democratising the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) industries. The co-founder of Stemettes explores what role tech will play in changing the way we live and work, and how women can take a lead role in that transformation in her new book, She’s in CTRL. Voted as Britain’s most influential women in tech in 2020, she speaks to AMAKA about how women can engage in technology, and build a better future by claiming their seats at the table, lab and keyboard. 

Imafidon, one of Britain’s brightest minds, has always been an avid advocate for women’ advancement in STEM. 

After passing her GCSEs in maths and ICT, she became the youngest girl ever to pass A-level computing aged just 11, and received her master’s degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of Oxford at 20. 

The British-Nigerian computer scientist and mathematician has since worked at several organisations, including Deutsche Bank, US investment bank, Goldman Sachs and Hewlett-Packard. In 2013 she started Stemettes – a social enterprise that emboldens young girls and women to take up and practice science, technology and maths through fun, food and free activities. The 33-year-old CEO was awarded an MBE in 2017.

From child prodigy to a pioneer, Imafidon draws on her vast experiences and those of fellow innovators and industry pioneers to encourage women to take back tech. 

AMAKA: In She’s in CTRL you explore key issues that are unique to women in a sector that creates solutions for problems across society and builds for the future. Why is it vital that women are a central part of the tech space, not an afterthought, and what does taking control look like?

Women aren’t a monolith, taking control means having more agency over our lives, not being at the mercy of wherever (or whatever) technology might touch on (or upon) in our life, work, play and joy. It also means overcoming fear and building digital and technical literacy that allows you to be able to create solutions for some of the problems that you’re facing. 

In the book I mention a few examples, while some are inane like women struggling to access their lockers, there are others with more serious consequences. There’s one about facial recognition, where a teen is misrecognised as someone who’s been in a fight at an ice rink before, when in reality that never happened. And they are expelled from the venue because a decision was made using tech alone. 

Anne-Marie Imafidon: Women Need to Take Up Space in STEM  

Breaking down the walls of gatekeepers, becoming change pioneers

In chapter five, you write: “Being a young Black woman is a fact that has made your curiosity about tech more important.” In what ways will Black women benefit if they take back tech and start engaging with it more?

I had a lot of experiences and questions, many of the people building technology or are in the decision-making rooms never have. I don’t know if it’s overt racism, but the consequences are detrimental for Black women. There was a case that involved the tech used for renewing passports, where a Black woman uploaded her new passport photo and couldn’t renew her passport because the technology couldn’t tell that her mouth wasn’t open. This prevents people like myself; a dark-skinned Black woman who has a top lip that’s a lot darker than my bottom lip from using the system and potentially not being able to have my passport on time and miss out on important travel commitments or even going on holiday. These experiences reiterate why we need to be part of the puzzle. Black women are often forgotten and not represented in a lot of things including datasets. 

Taking back tech means we are considered and understood in all spaces, from our views on leadership, our consumer trends and finances, and our hair and skin. We can have a better quality of life about what matters to us, and those in similar predicaments by not settling for lip service and substandard products and services.  

How can Black women become changemakers, and engage with tech both in a professional and personal capacity?

1) Stand in your power, your perspective and experiences and bring value to the technical conversations. There’s so much learning to be done about the things Black women might deem normal, but we need to be seen, heard and make important decisions about our future. 

2) Seek to push out tools that represent Black women and create global innovative systems that solve problems rather than creating them. 

3) Know the problem that you want to solve. Give yourself a set time to understand what you’re trying to make change about, and research if anyone else is working on similar issues. 

4) Draw on the skills that you already possess and how they relate to your solution. 

5) Focus on what you can control, learn from your mistakes and be alive in the moment of creation, so you can enjoy it.  

What can women do to overcome gatekeeping in the tech industry?

1) Know what you are coming up against and prepare yourself with the right tools to tackle the hurdles. Sadly, being a woman still has a lot of disadvantages, from equality to education, but this also includes exerting technical power in the form of gatekeeping.

2) I hope this book and Stemettes is a sisterhood of growing together to work in union against technical spaces to ensure there’s fewer gatekeepers sitting in seats of power. 

3) Don’t be discouraged and give up easily. Some people don’t realise they are gatekeeping, its behaviours they have inherited from generations ahead of them. 

4) Understand your impact. As a society we end up devaluing things that are seen as benefiting women. Imagine creating solutions for women who are struggling with their periods, endometriosis or menopause rather than the irrelevant things being pumped up the tech chain that are solving non-existing problems? 

Mariam Jimoh: My Vision is to Build a Global Tech Brand 

Overcoming fear, taking risks and building for the future

Why do you think the tech sector is “afraid of women being curious, learning and taking control?” 

Part of the reason is because women can dismantle the walls that have been built to keep them out. Gatekeeping is rife in the tech sector because it creates a scarcity mindset. For some people it’s an idea of how they know they have value, by keeping others out. So, it’s about power and protecting what has been established. There’s also some elitism, which comes from the academic circles. A lot of the things that are happening have come out of incredibly elitist spaces such as physics and mathematics departments. Much of it also reinforces the stories of the role models and the people we tell. So, the idea that someone like me exists is either perceived as very inspirational or feels like an attack or protest. Someone who looks like me can’t be seen as being inside the gates, so the gatekeepers that were set against me haven’t really done their work. 

No one likes change and the current system works for some people, I think a lot of the fear comes from the process of bringing in something new. We don’t know what will happen or what it looks like when women take control and have more technical knowledge. So, there’s that fear of the unknown and fear of losing power.  

Towards the end of She’s in CTRL, you write about how your colleagues almost convinced you to stay in your tech job because leaving to go full time at Stemettes would cause you to lose the “technical nature of your career”. What tips do you have for women who are afraid of starting something new or taking risks? 

1)I’m hoping that by the time women get to the end of the book, they can see they’re enough of something and technical. How you use and build on the things that make you enough is what matters and counts. 

2) Have a network and ensure you have alternate and supportive voices of people to commiserate with and celebrate with outside of your job, and across the industry and the different protected characteristics that you might have. 

3) Having mentors is super important. They don’t need to be restricted to your specific industry to be able to draw on their guidance and advice as a safe sounding board. 

4) Always have options, have visibility of them and be open. We can feel trapped in the opinions of others because that’s all we can see, but the perspective that you gain from seeing your options allows you to make decisions and not be restricted.