By By Erin Barry
Only one in five professional computing occupations are held by women. In 2016, just 19 percent of women graduated with a Computer and Information Science degree. However, women made up 57 percent of bachelor degree recipients.
So why are women falling behind in the tech sector?
“We need to create new pathways for women into technology. That first opening computer science class at college is too late,” Melinda Gates, of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation told CNBC in an interview.
That’s why organizations like Girls Who Code start teaching girls as young as third grade about coding.
“We have to start as young as we possibly can because we know that essentially it’s in middle school where all of a sudden these subjects aren’t cool,” Reshma Saujani, Girls Who Code Founder & CEO, told CNBC’s “On the Money.”
The non-profit launched in 2012, and offers programs that are free for girls. Funding comes from a mix of individual and corporate contributions.
From the time girls are young, we are teaching them to smile and be pretty, to play it safe and get all A’s,” she said. “And we’re not teaching them to take risk, we’re not teaching them to fail. And so much about coding is about failing.”
Read the rest @ https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/29/girls-who-code-aims-to-close-gender-gap-in-tech.html
