People always love putting you in boxes and giving you titles that explain half your story. As a young girl, you are always given a predefined list of things you should and should not do. At the top of the list, the word perfection is spelled in bold and uppercase letters because, above all, you need to be PERFECT! Pretty much like you are another type of the human species that is not allowed to make mistakes. Our choices are predefined and bound by a list that should not exist.

Women can be whatever the heck they want to be. They have choices as much as everybody else if they wish to be engineers, leaders of corporations, politicians, caregivers, etc.

A particular bias exists that females are not interested in software because "we are not wired for it" forgetting that there were women like Grace Hopper, one of the first programmers of Harvard Mark I computer. Additionally, she invented one of the first linkers. And Ada Lovelace was the world’s first computer programmer and is world-renowned for publishing the first algorithm carried out by the pioneering Analytical Engine.

Women do not have to strive for perfection because, as humans, we cannot be perfect. But we can always choose to be better than we were the previous day.

As we celebrate International Women’s Day this year, I stand with everybody lending a voice and #ChooseToChallenge:

• The ideology of perfection.
• Predefined choices, a woman can be whatever she wants to be.
• Include women equally in your decision-making discussions (be at home or work).
• Equal opportunities for all.

This article was written by Velda Kiara