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Episode details

World Service,08 Jan 2024,21 mins

Why are women winning at STEM in Africa?

Africa Daily

Available for over a year

The number of women studying STEM subjects in African universities - that’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics – has risen dramatically over the last five decades. Female students now make up for almost 50% of the total number, a higher percentage of female representation than any other continent in the world. How has this happened and does this translate into similar representation in the job market once students graduate? Alan Kasujja speaks to Professor Verdiana Grace Masanja, the first woman to gain a Maths Phd in Tanzania, and the first female Maths professor there. When she started she was the only woman in the room and throughout her life she has encouraged young women to seize the opportunities that she herself had to struggle for.

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