Girls Can Code is a BBC Three programme where five girls, who confess to disliking technology, are challenged to create a successful app in five days, or more accurately, five grown women with different interests. All of these girls who like their tech, without understanding how it works, come up with a marketable idea for an app that is pitched to leading women in the industry.
Of course, anyone who does code knows full well that you don’t go from nothing to professional-level programmer in five days. It takes months, even years, of practice, just like learning a foreign language. But of course it’s equally as possible for girls to learn how to code as it is boys.
So why don’t they?
Four percent of gaming programmers are female. Seven of the richest 100 tech billionaires are women. At the recent PyCon UK, a coming-together of professional Python programmers, one woman working for a well-known software giant told me “we don’t get the chance to be developers, we’re sent to meet customers". A quick scan of the assembled Python developers showed a sea of men with an occasional woman - apart from the education track, where roughly 50% of the teachers attending were women.
In schools the situation continues. In the recent Astro-Pi coding competition, 44% of entries from primary schools were by girls and a further 9% were unspecified – an estimate of 48% female entrants is reasonable. They were asked to come up with ideas for applications to run on Raspberry Pi computers on the International Space Station (ISS) – the coding would be done for them. In the secondary competition a whopping 73% of entrants were boys, rising to 83% once the requirement to write code kicked in. Only 8% of this year’s A level entries were girls.
This situation must end – and many people are trying to end it.
PyCon featured Django Girls, an international organisation introducing women to the Django framework, based on Python. Upstairs, Trans*Code gathered transgender programmers and reached out to everyone.
Elsewhere, Stemettes supports groups of girls through the OutBox Incubator, and runs hackathons to develop skills. In schools, CC4G have run computer clubs for girls for many years, and 40% of attendees at Code Clubs are female. These are just a few.
Teachers are critical to affecting the change that is needed. Female role models, within and outside the classroom, can start to overcome the prejudice against a career in the tech industry. Teaching of computing must be high-quality, allowing students to pursue their own areas of interest and making the links to everyday experiences of technology. Teaching activities and resources must be stimulating, varied and well-made, showcasing the breadth of opportunity in programming and supporting from the first tiny steps in learning.
This is a call to action – and we’ll help you get there. With Continuing Professional Development (CPD) to make your teaching as effective as it can be, quality assured resources that are easily searchable, industrial and academic placements that can help you tell that inspiring story.