Growing up, I was so obsessed with the super hero series. My personal favorite has always been Iron Man. I was fascinated by the fact of how a normal person like you and me can turn into a superhero with the help of technology — from there my interest in technology was born. Until I was in junior high school I had never touched computer and the concept technology and computer were just like a magic box. It was all changed when I was introduced to programming course. I had become the only women in my class to be intrigued by the concept of logic, trial and error ; something most women are scared to experience.
Just as Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code shared in her Ted Talk, we have been teaching our girls to be perfect not brave. She shared about how a friend of her found out that girls would rather show a blank screen instead of showing the mistakes in their codes. It was something that I had experience with my other classmates too. Unlike most of the boys in my class at that time, they were proud to show to show the mistakes in their codes, while most the girls in my class was the complete opposite. I witnessed this not only during my school days but even in my work life.
There was a vague line that women didn’t want to cross when it came to technology. A concept of computer was somehow made for men not women. A statistic shows that 55% of both twitter and facebook users are women. The same statistic also shows that only 25% of IT Jobs are held by women and 28% are for proprietary software jobs. Though the numbers of women who are breaking down in technology are also increasing; the increment is not so significant either — 18- 20% of engineering students are women and only 5% of tech startup are owned by women. From those numbers we can clearly see the gender gap in technology is higher than any other fields and it’s something that need our immediate attention.
By 2020 we will have 1.4 million jobs open in computer science, yet we’ll have enough qualified graduates to fill just 29% percent of them — with less than 3% will be filled by women. We have to motivate women to enter these fields well before they are starting high school and college with these following steps :
1. Education
Coding is a critical skill when it comes to technology field, especially computer — science. The concept behind coding is conditioning one’s mind to consider challenges and problem solving in a creative way. Simply put, its a way of creating new ideas. Just as other subjects like Physics, Calculus or History, coding will impart different ways of thinking.
The message we need to convey is not that girls (or boys) should study computer science as a narrow means to a career end — rather, that the study of computer science is intellectually exciting and stimulating in its own right. It opens the mind to new ways of thinking and problem-solving.
2. Mentors
Lack of women leaders in technology is not a culture and we need to stop treating it as one. Male dominated images of programmers from popular culture, the lack of female role models, and broader societal attitudes toward women in tech make careers in our industry unappealing to many young women. We should start treating is a wake up call for all women who are already in technology fields, step out and let your voices be heard, lets motivate our young girls to embrace technology.
3. Don’t Limit Our Girls
To embrace the different ways, often coming with new ways of ideas and thinking, we also need to teach our girls that mistake is necessary. For once they don’t have to be perfect to learn coding and embrace technology. This can only be achieve if we allow our girls to explore more than that the ‘pink aisle’ toy store from earlier ages. Let our girls play with cars as much as we allow our boys too. We have to teach our girls that it is okay to let them make mistakes, that trial and error won’t make them less perfect. Let the girls in your life tinker with things, break toys, get dirty, and fail.And let them know that adversity is common in these fields. Learning from and moving past failure is part of the design process.
Sares is founder and writer at Next Generation Digital Magazine, a social action & education platform that wants to solve the world’s biggest challenges.On our platform you can learn about issues, take action on what matters most and join a community committed to social change. To learn about our work, subscribe now
Originally published at www.nextgenmag.org on June 20, 2017.