Some of the biggest obstacles women face in the corporate world include the lack of an enabling environment for them to grow their competences and rise through the managerial ranks. Historically, there has been debate about women’s performance in leadership.

As frustrating the very existence of that debate may be, it has also shone the spotlight on successful women like Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey and Wangari Mathai and the qualities that got them there.  Women, are just as capable, and growth oriented as their male counterparts. Over the years, many promising leadership programs across the continent have opened their doors to help support more women garner the skills deemed necessary for growth in the corporate and business world. Davis & Shirtliff has taken this effort a step further and has harnessed the powerful tool of storytelling to inspire and train its female workforce. This program, dubbed the ‘Women in Leadership’ mentoring program, is an internal program available to all the female D&S staff, regardless of rank or designation.

In a move to extend this mentorship to a younger audience outside of the company, the program partnered with ‘Be The Engineer’ to carry out a full-day mentorship seminar in commemoration of International Women’s Day. ‘Be The Engineer’ is an organization that provides girls and young women access to STEM mentorship through various activities which include leadership seminars, skill-based STEM boot camps, career day talks in high school, TVETs, colleges and universities.

The seminar was hosted at the Dayliff Building and boasted 5 inspirational guest speakers, one of whom was D&S’s General Manager, Margaret Kuchio. The speakers also included Dr. Rose Ngugi – Executive Director KIPPRA, Dr. Amakove Wala – Health Systems Expert, Eng. Elizabeth Rogo – CEO, Tsavo Oilfield Services; President, African Energy Chamber and Maryben Omollo – Mental Health Advocate, Vice President, AFYEF.