Rachel Chikwamba
w:Rachel Chikwamba is a Zimbabwean plant geneticist born in 1967. She is in the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Group Executive: Strategic Alliances and Communication. She is an active member of the Academy of Science of South Africa.
Quotes
[edit]- Many of the challenges had to do with doubt cast on my abilities to lead, sometimes self-doubt, but also doubt by other parties. I overcame that through self-belief and determination, demonstration of what I can do in all my assignments from the most trivial to strategic. I made a choice that whatever I chose to do will be excellent.
- I find myself now quite comfortable in my own skin, with nothing to prove to anyone but myself. Support of family, colleagues, male and female, can of course not be underestimated! I have had mentors who have supported me along the way as well.
- To never stop learning, and to never stop seeking the next challenge. My aspirations are to be CEO of my own business empire; I have an idea box that I need to act upon!
- I think it’s no secret that the decision makers in STI are predominantly male, and that is not to say there are no capable women. Of course, the capable women are a lot less few, because of a problem that starts with the access to education and opportunity that is skewed toward the male child, especially in my part of the world.
- I think the world is poorer for not giving a chance to the girl child. I think that skewed system then carves out the research agenda in a manner that could have benefited immensely from having women at the top, given our role in society.
- It is an honour for me to be recognised as one of the 50 most influential people navigating disruption in the ‘collaborators’ category.
- This recognition is in line with the collaboration value in our CSIR EPIC values and is testament to how we live up to these values.
- [womeninscience.africa/giving-recognition-where-it-is-due/ Rachel Chikwamba on being recognized]
