By Esther Onyegbula

Stakeholders at this year’s edition of the Global Mentorship Conference organised by iTrain Africa have called for a total mindset overhaul in Africa to help address the challenges facing women in their careers and life in general.

Speaking at the hybrid event, the convener and founder of ITrain Africa, Mrs Aderinsola Adepeju, said: “Global Mentorship Conference is a mentorship conference for African youths, women and professionals who hope to gain clarity and direction, build and belong to global networks and advance to the top of their careers globally. 

“The first step we need to take to address the myriad of challenges faced by the average African woman requires a shift in mindset. It is just about mindset, that is what it has been and people don’t want to change it.

“We are trying to address the problem of under representation of women in leadership positions. In the years past, we used to just fight that women are not being educated but now, women are being educated. But we discovered that even with education, women woul finish university and instead of them to build their careers to get to the global stage, they stay in their comfort zone. They forget that when it is time to make decisions, if you are not at the table, the decisions are not going to be made to favour you. 

“That is why we are examining the challenges that women encounter in their journey to get to the top of their careers, of course, there are several of them, but cultural bias tops the list. We are looking at how we can address these challenges using the case study of successful career women, who are doing well in their careers.

“We cannot keep whining, we need to figure out how those women, who have done it are doing it and that is why we put together this conference. So we have brought 41 speakers including successful career women to share their journey with participants.

‘Two thousand of the most engaged women at this particular conference will be allowed to participate in a free leadership programme for 13 weeks. This is to further equip them for the leadership positions.

Apart from addressing the four major career paths of entrepreneurship, academia, freelancing (gig economy) and regular 9 to 5 occupation, the highlight of the event was the panel session where panelists shared their career journey with 25,000 participants across 40 African countries.