I’d like to start this article with some good news: the women’s cause is not lost! Do you know why? Because all over the world, and here in Quebec, there are women who have chosen to dedicate their lives to the emancipation of women. Such is the case of Aminka Belvitt.
Born in Jamaica and raised in Canada’s Ontario region, Aminka has always been a curious, active child, involved in all kinds of clubs at school. Even as a child, her personality and convictions indicated that she would dedicate her life to entrepreneurship and women’s emancipation. And with good reason: she has just been awarded the Young Woman Entrepreneur prize at the 4th edition of the InspirationnElle 2019 evening, organized by the Women’s Y Foundation of Montreal. Meet a woman of distinction!
After studying public administration and politics at the University of Ottawa, then public policy at Concordia University, Aminka became involved with Montreal’s black community, supporting several programs, in particular to help young mothers. It was at this point that the idea of founding the ForUsGirls Foundation took root. She says: “I realized that there were few programs focusing on preventive measures to help women who are victims of violence or who need help with the legal system.”
Programming and design thinking as a lever for building identity
So it was in January 2015 that the young entrepreneur launched the ForUsGirls Foundation , an NPO offering leadership and mentoring programs to girls between the ages of 10 and 17, as well as young women between the ages of 18 and 24. Since 2015, the foundation has reached more than 5,000 marginalized girls and women in Canada, the United States and the Caribbean.
It was while working on the development of her foundation that Aminka really became aware of her interest in technology. She was struck by the superpower of technology as a lever for connecting people, for development and for self-esteem. A month after the launch of the foundation, she set up her own C For Coding program for young girls.
During the workshops, Aminka is faced with little girls who are shy and have very little self-confidence. Their shyness is such that they prefer to isolate themselves, afraid that anyone might come and talk to them or even look at them. As the workshop draws to a close, Aminka can see the pride on their faces: they’ve managed to build a website by learning to program! “It was really inspiring. That’s when I really realized that technology was a solution for making young girls independent and proud of themselves,” she says proudly.
“Over 90% of girls aged 10-16 said they prefer to work in girls-only spaces to develop their mathematical, scientific and computer programming skills.” – The ForUsGirls Foundation
Putting the solution in their own hands… that’s also what Aminka does with young girls, teaching them about innovation from an early age. She tells me about the time she ran a workshop with the Laval women’s soccer team on self-confidence. She asked them to build a prototype of a solution to help the girls improve their self-esteem. She says: “One of them takes a ruler, some plastic string and makes what she calls an ‘invisibility blindfold’. Every time a young girl wakes up and feels depressed, she puts this blindfold on her head and it automatically erases the bad thoughts she has of herself”. Aminka is stunned by the imagination and ingenuity of these girls!
Gender stereotyping begins in childhood, when boys are often given toys for crafts and girls for activities that emphasize emotions. Well…
What if technology and innovation could develop design thinking in girls and women? The philosophy behind design thinking is to propose ideas without limits and build prototypes to bring them to life!
“We’ve been socially conditioned not to look for the things we really want,” Aminka tells me. According to a behavioral study conducted by LinkedIn in 2019, women tend to be more hesitant in their job search process. They would apply for 20% fewer jobs than men because they would consider that they had to meet 100% of the criteria, compared with 60% for men. So if we help young girls and women to stop having limits, then they’ll be better able to make choices that align with their thinking and ability. They are capable of creating solutions to solve problems. And they’ll choose university courses that reflect their true desires, rather than being subject to external influence. Because, no, engineering is not a man’s job!
Boosting women’s entrepreneurial careers
Aminka’s fight for women doesn’t stop there, as she is also the founding president of WomenTech Solutions, a learning and communication platform. More specifically, the platform provides solutions to create online courses, webinars and videoconferencing tools so they can sell their professional skills.
When I asked Aminka what advice she would give to a woman looking to get into tech entrepreneurship, she didn’t limit herself to ONE piece of advice:
- Question the “why”. “I would tell everyone not to start something just to start something, but because the point is there. Why use your resources if you don’t have a purpose?” Map your idea, use design thinking to really understand what you want to do and what problem you want to solve. That’s how Womentech Solutions took shape.
- Learn, understand, educate yourself about the field you want to get involved in. “For a long time, I immersed myself in the startup ecosystem to understand how they work. I learned about their business model, financing, recruiting and managing teams, creating a technological product. You need to be fully informed about the technology you want to implement. Read on!”
- Don’t be afraid to propose an idea. “If, within a company in which you are employed you have a solid idea and you think it can solve a problem, put it on the table. Get the expertise of someone more technical and go for it!”
Aminka is a ball of energy. You know the kind of woman who has a thousand and one ideas a minute, and with whom there’s never a dull moment!
Aminka Belvitt’s fight is proof that we have a role to play in the education of young girls, and we need to play it now! We must also continue to equip young women to help them realize their ambitions. Let’s go girls!
I leave you with this quote from Aminka, which has been on my mind ever since we met: “Everything I do is an expression of my thoughts and creativity. It’s what feeds me, keeps me going and, above all, keeps me thinking about why I do it.”
