WomenInTech. "Women are no less capable than men," — how young women from Kazakhstan and Tajikistan overcome stereotypes

Asemgul Tuyakpaeva, city — Astana, co-founder, Operations Director at Sagi, Instagram

About Me

I am 35 years old, originally from Almaty, and a mother of three wonderful children. Currently, I work at the IT company Sagi as a co-founder and Operations Director. Our company develops a B2B SaaS platform aimed at small and medium-sized businesses. At the moment, I am in Chicago, USA, participating in an internship through the US Department of State’s Techwomen program, including a professional internship at Microsoft. This program selected 100 women leaders from 20 countries working in STEM fields from over 6,000 applicants.

My career path began even during my studies at Eurasia National University. While studying, I worked in the PR department of the IT company ARTA Software. It was then that I realized I enjoyed marketing and wanted to develop in this field, although I initially studied economics.

After obtaining my bachelor’s degree, I entered the master’s program “Bolashak” at the University of Birmingham in the UK, where I studied international marketing. After graduating, I started working at a subsidiary of Nazarbayev University, where I worked for nearly 10 years with breaks for maternity leave. During this time, I also helped my husband with his IT companies, gradually immersing myself in the world of startups and learning about the specifics of working in this sector.

How I Entered the IT Profession

I fully entered the IT industry in 2021 when we founded the company Sagi. There, I took on marketing and operational responsibilities.

My acquaintance with the IT sphere began even during my student years when I combined studies with work in the PR department. However, a full transition into IT happened later when, being married, I began to delve deeper into my husband’s work. I realized that I could contribute to the company’s development by dedicating time and resources to it.

About Stereotypes

The main stereotype I encountered was that a person without specialized education and experience in IT cannot work in this field. This is not true. With a background in economics and marketing, I successfully found my place in the IT industry.

Barriers for Women in IT

I believe that a woman who is married and has children effectively performs at least two jobs: family/children and primary professional activities. If it comes to a startup, the load increases significantly. A startup becomes your child and sometimes takes more time and energy than desired. Sometimes there isn’t even enough time to communicate with the children.

My family helps me overcome difficulties. Since this is a joint company with my husband, he is always ready to take on some of my responsibilities when he sees that I need to spend time with the children or family. I am also grateful to my husband’s parents, who always help with the children. For example, at the moment, when I am undergoing a six-week internship in Chicago, they are taking care of the children, and I can rest assured.

I am convinced that women are no inferior to men and can successfully program, manage teams, and create startups. However, in addition to work, they are burdened with many stereotypical obligations, and without delegating part of the work, it becomes difficult to cope with everything.

Recommendations for Those Just Starting Their Path

To those who are just starting their career path in IT, I would advise not to be afraid. Even if you do not have specialized education or experience, just start trying. Take on any work, study markets and news, keep up with new technologies. Do not be afraid to ask questions and even look for a female mentor who can advise in difficult situations.

Be sure to continue learning. There are many programs, such as TechAiel, which help girls master IT specialties. Online courses are also available on platforms like Udemy.

And most importantly — believe in yourself. Join communities of women in technology that will motivate and support you. Remember that there is a place for everyone in the IT field who is ready to learn and develop.

Zarina Rajabova, city — Dushanbe, Senior IT Project Manager, Instagram

About Me

I am a project manager at Ayan and a mother of three children. Previously, I headed the IT department of Alif Bank and Alif Academy, after which I joined the team where we tested various hypotheses for entering other markets, which today has evolved into Ayan.

I entered university blindly, not understanding at that time what my specialty would be. I remember how long my mother and I thought about it, and in the end, I decided to choose “World Economy.” I was searching for myself, took accounting courses, and started my career in auditing. Then, in 2015, I joined Alif as a senior accountant and subsequently held various positions in the back office. We created processes from scratch, and I took on everything I could do.

How I Entered the IT Profession

In 2015, in addition to accounting, my task was to select and implement software for automating accounting and reporting. Usually, banks have ABS and CRM. I participated in selecting the vendor and implementing the system. My colleague Shokhrukh wrote in PHP, and we began developing a small CRM. The search for ABS was slow, and realizing that the system was not suitable, I proposed developing the software ourselves. I remember how Abdullo Kurbonov, co-founder of Alif Bank, looked at me in surprise and said, “Let’s do it.” A couple of months after this conversation, I went on maternity leave, leaving the technical specification to our developer. Already a month after giving birth, I started checking what had been done, and in early 2017, we launched the ABS. Thus began my path in IT: I was both a manager and a tester, while simultaneously working in accounting and the back office.

About Stereotypes

1. “You are still young, what can you know?”

From the very beginning of my career in auditing, I felt the gaze of more experienced specialists who hinted at my youth and inexperience, as well as the idea that as a girl, I could not fully understand the situation. But my husband always supported my ambitions to develop in my career, and it was he who persuaded me to join Alif. He continues to support me in my sometimes crazy challenges. At work, especially at the startup stage, the atmosphere was: “try, allow yourself to make mistakes, do it again.” For me, the atmosphere of Alif is best captured by Kipling’s poem — “If.”

It was thanks to this support that I was able to achieve a lot.

2. “You work so much, how do your children grow up?”

Each of my maternity leaves became an important moment in my career. With the birth of my eldest daughter, we launched the ABS; with the birth of my middle child, we launched online programming courses; and with the birth of my youngest, we started crypto-lending. After its closure, we began the Ayan project.

The birth of each child gave me a lot of strength. We often travel abroad with the children, read, and learn something new. The eldest goes to school, while the younger ones stay with the nanny during the day. In the evenings and on weekends, my husband and I spend time with the children. Sometimes we don’t have time to do homework or have to take time off to go to the doctor. But there is a certain joy in this.

Barriers for Women in IT

One of the difficult moments for me was integrating into IT not only in terms of understanding the development of functionality and applications but also in communicating with IT administrators and DevOps engineers. As a manager, you are responsible for ensuring that your software works and must anticipate many risks, be ready for failures and changes. Sometimes I just cried because I didn’t understand why something couldn’t be implemented, or when something was not anticipated, and the application crashed. I faced mockery like: “What don’t you understand? It’s all so simple.” But the most important thing is the environment. Thank God, I met exactly those people who supported me.

Recommendations for Those Just Starting Their Path

Do not be afraid that you do not understand something. If you want to cry, cry, it will definitely become easier. You need to try and try, read, and study a lot of new things. The main thing is to surround yourself with people who will support you and not mock you.