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How to Get Girls Into Coding

posted by janrinok on Saturday June 07 2014, @05:58PM   Printer-friendly
from the food-for-thought dept.

AnonTechie writes:

A huge nationwide push is underway, funded by the nonprofit Code.org's corporate and billionaire donors, from Amazon and Google to Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, to introduce American schoolchildren to coding and to redefine it as a basic skill to be learned alongside the three R's.

Code.org's curriculum has been adopted by 20,000 teachers from kindergarten to 12th grade. But if coding is the new lingua franca, literacy rates for girls are dropping: Last year, girls made up 18.5 percent of A.P. computer science test-takers nationwide, a slight decrease from the year before. In three states, no girls took the test at all. An abysmal 0.4 percent of girls entering college intend to major in computer science [PDF]. And in 2013, women made up 14 percent of all computer science graduates down from 36 percent in 1984. The imbalance persists in the tech industry. Just this week, Google released data showing that women account for just 17 percent of its tech employees.

The problem is not only getting girls to computer class, but keeping them there.

See also girlswhocode.com.

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 10 2014, @12:17AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 10 2014, @12:17AM (#53485)

    2. Woman are too smart to put up with the abuse in IT. We are abused by management, out clients, and our peers. Men don't know when to run from an abusive relationship. Yes, 80 hour weeks, 36 hour days, and then getting shat on for not clocking in at 08:00 the next day (a freaking disciplinary hearing - that I LOST!!!???) is abuse. And that was just my first job ...

    Here's my first job as a software consultant:
      - Overtime is strictly prohibited without prior approval. Worked an extra two hours yesterday? You better go home early today.
      - Working the normal 9-5 shift? You'd better be in the office somewhere between 7am and noon. Or at least give your manager a call before then.
      - Weekend shifts occasionally required. You'll get your day off during the week instead, and feel free to watch TV or maybe even play some Call of Duty if you're not too busy.
      - Boss catches you shopping on Amazon.com during the work day? Prepare for a five minute discussion about what you're buying and whether or not the boss likes that particular style.
      - And my salary? I'm putting a third of my take-home pay into savings, but my checking account just keeps on growing too...plus medical, dental, vision, and a 401(k).

    The worst part of my job is when I run out of articles to read here and get bored!