Women Who Code – Mentoring Girls to Code is Key

Coding is not, and has never been, gender-specific. Some of the very first programmers in history were women!

By learning code at an early age, girls develop a better grasp for the technology, which helps them find better solutions and manage failure. Teaching girls to code gives children the chance to experience the feeling of failure, so that they learn not to give up when something doesn’t work out, but rather begin again.

Coding helps girls with academic performance and problem solving. Girls that learn to code are able to improve in a range of educational topics such as mathematics, writing, and creativity. Computer programming tasks always have a beginning, middle and definitive end.

Coding is important to learn because it teaches you important skills such as critical thinking, problem solving and creativity.

Coding is also a skills that is valued in the workforce. Computer science is foundational to many fields and students of all genders report being not only interested in the subject but confident of their abilities as well. Despite this, not enough girls are choosing to study it.

Girls learning coding is a much needed step towards solving the gender gap problem that continues to plague software programming.

According to a report by Catalyst, a global nonprofit organization promoting inclusive workplaces for women, just 25 percent of the American STEM workforce was represented by women in 2016. The same year saw a mere 20 percent women in the fields of software development, applications and systems software and just 9.7 percent of women work as computer network architects in the US.

Women Who code says: “We are committed to ensuring that Women Who Code is an anti-racist organization and recognize the power of our platform to be a force that affects change. Until we all experience justice and equity in our daily lives, none of us can.

When you become a part of Women Who Code you gain access to programs and services that are designed to help you step up your tech career. We have over 290,000 members who are career-aged tech professionals operating at each level of the industry.”

Chris Bay, Vice President of Education and Technology states: “Coding isn’t going anywhere. After all, it’s the foundation of the knowledge economy. Today, the unrelenting pace of change — from machine learning to automation to cloud computing — means that tech will only continue to drive business decisions.

This isn’t just a prediction, either. At LaunchCode, we’re regularly approached by all kinds of business leaders who want to train their nontechnical staff to code. In fact, a U.S. Air Force commander recently reached out and explained that he wanted to train his staff in Python and data literacy. These leaders already see the value of coding literacy and the impact it can have.”

Girls Who Code Opportunities

What is a Mentor?

A mentor is a technical, female employee at one of Girls Who Code’s companies or a Girls Who Code alum who has volunteered to share their advice and experiences. Each mentor is a professional working in a technical role and aims to impart knowledge, acquired through years of industry experience, about their path in tech.

Virtual Mentoring will connect young women and non-binary individuals with female industry professionals through monthly semi-guided group mentoring sessions. The sessions will be virtual conversations on video, centered around professional and educational growth to support entry into careers in technology.

How Mentors and Mentees are Matched?

Once participants have fully completed the application, a subset of applicants will be selected to participate. Their names are entered into the Virtual Mentorship Program database. A group of mentees will be matched with two mentors based on a list of criteria. Each “pod” of mentors and mentees will include a diverse group of students and mentors, with a range of career interests and educational experiences.

You can submit a request HERE.

RELATED:

The Secret History of Women in Coding

Computer programming once had much better gender balance than it does today. What went wrong?