On any major job board, you’ll find hundreds of high-paying opportunities in technology. Yet, women hold only about 25% of the jobs in tech nationally. And with women seeking degrees in the field at only half the rate of their male counterparts, how can these numbers improve?
Sobering statistics like these are why Amy Renshaw founded Code/Art five years ago. The Miami-based nonprofit aims to increase the number of girls studying computer science by inspiring them with the creative possibilities of computer programming.
“Looking at the research, the quest is so important because the numbers have really dropped for women in computer science even though the opportunities are so much better,” said Renshaw. Indeed, according to the National Center for Women and Information Technology, women in the field peaked at 36% of the U.S. workforce in 1991 and then fell. For the past decade, the percentage has barely budged.
There are reasons, Renshaw said: Boys tend to get an introduction to coding earlier than girls. Once computers were cheap enough to be in the homes, everything was marketed more toward the boys and girls fell behind, she said. “Google did this study about how girls who had never taken a coding class described coding — and the number one word was ‘boring’.”
Continue reading: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article255220911.html
Sobering statistics like these are why Amy Renshaw founded Code/Art five years ago. The Miami-based nonprofit aims to increase the number of girls studying computer science by inspiring them with the creative possibilities of computer programming.
“Looking at the research, the quest is so important because the numbers have really dropped for women in computer science even though the opportunities are so much better,” said Renshaw. Indeed, according to the National Center for Women and Information Technology, women in the field peaked at 36% of the U.S. workforce in 1991 and then fell. For the past decade, the percentage has barely budged.
There are reasons, Renshaw said: Boys tend to get an introduction to coding earlier than girls. Once computers were cheap enough to be in the homes, everything was marketed more toward the boys and girls fell behind, she said. “Google did this study about how girls who had never taken a coding class described coding — and the number one word was ‘boring’.”
Continue reading: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article255220911.html
