EXPOSED: The ‘Feel-Good’ Awards Hiding Tech’s BRUTAL Reality for Women.
BEHIND THE GLITZY BANQUETS and self-congratulatory press releases, a SHOCKING truth is being buried. The so-called “Wired4Women Awards” are BACK, and critics are SLAMMING the initiative as a desperate DISTRACTION from an industry STILL dominated by men and plagued by systemic exclusion.
For the THIRD year, corporate giants like Telkom are bankrolling this “platform for visibility,” while the tech sector’s gender pay gap WIDENS and harassment scandals are swept under the rug. Insiders we spoke to call it “corporate window-dressing” – a cynical ploy to create the ILLUSION of progress while the REAL power structures remain UNTOUCHED.
“It’s become a catalyst for systemic change?” one anonymous female engineer scoffed. “We don’t need another black-tie dinner where a handful of ‘exceptional’ women are paraded like tokens. We need EQUITY, FUNDING, and an end to the boys’ club that still controls venture capital and promotions.”
The awards’ own model is under FIRE. A public nomination process? Experts warn this risks becoming a POPULARITY CONTEST, where visibility trumps genuine, groundbreaking work done in the shadows. The very need for 13 SEPARATE categories to celebrate women, they argue, PROVES how fragmented and conditional their recognition truly is.
This isn’t empowerment—it’s a carefully managed PR campaign where powerful sponsors get a “diversity” badge while avoiding the RADICAL restructuring required for true inclusion. They celebrate the “rising stars” but ignore the GLASS CEILING that shatters careers by age 40.
As nominations pour in for this glossy spectacle, ask yourself: Are we honouring excellence, or are we being PACIFIED? The industry’s deepest secret isn’t a lack of talented women—it’s a deliberate refusal to dismantle the fortress keeping them out. This is the award show that proves the problem it claims to solve. The banquet hall echoes with applause, but outside, the silence of excluded thousands is DEAFENING.
Author: Kayitsi.com
