Fireside Chat: Stories of Women in the Tech Field

In a world driven by technology and digital transformation initiatives, the number of women in technology remains significantly low. A 2020 study (in the US) revealed that women make up 28.8% of the tech workforce. And Egypt is no different. Sadly, the Egyptian tech sector is dominated by men.

Join us in this upcoming virtual fireside chat with 4 young women in the startup technology sector - Swvl and Magalix - as they share their experiences working in the tech industry.

In this candid conversation, we will be discussing the following questions:
1- What are the barriers holding women from pursuing a career in tech?
2- In what way does the surrounding culture and environment play a role in the gender imbalance for women in tech?
3- Post-Covid Changes in the workforce and way of working, how is this better/worse for women?
4- What can organizations and employers do to hire and retain female talent?

This event is open to everyone - male or female - who is interested in understanding the big picture and closing the gender gap in the technology space.

Agenda

7:00 pm – Fireside Chat: Stories of Women in the Tech Field

Moderator:

• Heba Eid - Technical Content Marketing Lead, Magalix

Panelists:

• Hagar Magdy - Senior Software Test Automation Engineer, Magalix

Bio:
Hagar is a Senior Software Test Automation Engineer at Magalix. Hagar has 5 years of experience in quality assurance and test automation as a computer science graduate. Prior to joining Magalix, she worked at various other companies, including Vodafone and ITWORX.
Hagar enjoys experimenting and cooking different recipes and shopping in her spare time.

• Sara Abdelmessih - Lead Software Engineer, Magalix

Bio:
Sara is a Lead Software Engineer at Magalix; she has 10 years of experience in the software development field. Some of the companies she’s worked at include CodeScalers and ITWORX, among others. She enjoys coming up with solutions for unique and interesting problems.
In her free time, she likes winning squash matches, playing and recording music, taking pictures, and eating cheese.

• Safa Mohamed Ads - iOS Engineer, Swvl

Bio:
Safa is an iOS Engineer in Swvl and STO for project-999; a project that aims to maintain the stability of the Mobile Apps in Swvl by maintaining a percentage of 99.9% crash-free users. Before joining Swvl, she worked as a Mobile Engineer at ITWorx for one year. She graduated from German University in Cairo in 2018 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Media Engineering and Technology. During her studies in the university, she was a junior teaching assistant teaching Computer Engineering for first year students along with working as a C++/QT developer in Merply company. During her free time, she loves traveling, exploring new cities and playing sports.

• Yara Yehia - Senior Software Engineer, Swvl

Bio:
Yara is one of the oldest Backend Engineers at Swvl. Computer Science has always been her passion; She was ranked by The University of Cambridge as “Highest Grade Across Saudi Arabia in Computing Advanced Level”. Her enthusiasm towards programming and desire to get more experience in this field drove her to choose to study at the German university in Cairo.
She joined Swvl in 2018 and has gained substantial experience in writing high notch code, identifying bugs, fixing bugs and designing a reliable architecture. She is most familiar with NodeJs, Java and Go-lang. Yara loves a good challenge and is excited about learning cybersecurity so she can mix her problem solving skills with her managerial skills.
She's always been passionate about art (code or paintings) and has been painting for three years. "Creating things with my own hands and seeing the final product come to life is one of the things I live for".

This event is co-organized and co-powered by Magalix and Swvl 💪

Registration Link: https://forms.gle/qBzNzL5ou7LBYAdt6