Technology affects every aspect of our lives today. For women in particular, it influences our reproductive lives, our careers and our responsibilities in the home.

When I went to hospital to deliver my second-born child, I didn’t know that I would be delivering twins. The first baby came out, perfect delivery. Sol and I were ecstatic. Sol went home, leaving me to rest, but instead of resting I went into labour again. What a surprise for Sol when he came to visit the following day and found me with not one baby but two!

Had there been the technology that we have today, I would have known long before my due date that I was expecting twins. The risks of carrying and delivering twins could have been mitigated well in advance. As it is, I am grateful there were no complications.

Technology has an extraordinary ability to help people attain a better quality of life in every aspect, from medicine to education. Maternal and child mortality have improved immeasurably, and online learning is taking formal education to girls and women who would otherwise not have had the opportunity.

“‘Aspire to be like Mount Fuji, with such a broad and solid foundation that the strongest earthquake cannot move you, and so tall that the greatest enterprises of common men seem insignificant from your lofty perspective. With your mind as high as Mount Fuji, you can see all things clearly. And you can see all the forces that shape events, not just the things happening near to you.’

This quote, from Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, says it all when it comes to what Makhulu did for our families. The Laugh and Learn Educare Centre has given our children such a solid foundation, it is almost impossible to shake. Their self-image is well established, having been groomed and nurtured by Makhulu and the values embedded in this wonderful centre of learning.”

– Vuyo Sidelo, chairperson of Laugh and Learn Educare Centre board member and family friend

Over the decades, technology has also released women from the time commitment of their daily household responsibilities, enabling them to pursue careers and an education. At the turn of the twentieth century, women’s lives consisted of simple home-based activities. They were the homemakers, having children, cooking meals and, in African societies, fetching wood and water and building huts.

The next generation, that of my mother, moved up the technology scale. While very much still homemakers, they bought sewing machines to make their own clothes, installed water pumps and used modern coal stoves and oil lamps instead of cooking over an open fire and using candles.

My generation moved up the scale a little more. Most of us were able to get an education and become nurses or teachers, although you could count on one hand the women who were doctors, lawyers and social workers. Very, very few women of my generation learnt how to drive.

This changed by the next generation. My daughter’s generation, further freed from domestic activities by dishwashers and vacuum cleaners, entered the halls of the corporate world. While many women of her generation didn’t manage to crack the glass ceiling, they nonetheless touched it. For both of us, education, westernisation and politicisation improved our quality of life.

Now, in the twenty-first century, women can enter any kind of work. They can become CEOs of companies. There are woman presidents in Africa – Liberia and Malawi being notable firsts. Women are taking up leadership positions as scientists, inventors and space explorers.

Technology has even changed the most fundamental aspect of being a woman: pregnancy and motherhood. These days, you may choose to become a mother by natural fertilisation or by artificial fertilisation methods. You could even choose to use the kind services of a surrogate mother. Increasingly, technology is giving women the option to have a child without involving their own bodies or having to form a family unit with a father or male figure.

Does this bode well for the family of the future? In the future, will we even have an institution called the family? As technology keeps taking strides, we have to be aware of the real possibility that co-parenting with men may become obsolete. What is to stop a high-powered woman from ordering her children from a particular gene pool and employing the services of a surrogate mother to bring them into the world?

I believe women should take the time to carefully consider the effect of technology on their lives as mothers, wives and nurturers of families. While some technologies have indubitably liberated women, others, like social media, have the potential to dominate freed-up time and attention that would be better spent helping one’s children finish their homework or cooking a decent meal. Technology is powerful, but it needs to be managed with care.

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Tell us: What are your thoughts on Connie Ngcaba’s on how technology is affecting women?