Computer Coding: It's Not Just For Boys
In London, there is a growing
interest in computer technology, a field that has been predominantly male. Isabelle
Aleksander, 16 and her friend Honey Ross, 15, are among the few girls at King
Alfred School, their private school in North London, with an intense interest
in technology. The girls understand why: because computer technology can look
boring from the outside, and is populate by mainly nerdy boys. Belinda Parmar would love to see
girls get involved in this field especially since women in technology is rare
and about to be even scarcer. Both sexes love gadgets but girls imagine using
them, rather than creating it. The future looks bleak. Girls take just 8
percent of Britain’s computer science A-levels, the high school exam that is
the passport to university studies. In the United States, girls are 19 percent
of high school Advanced Placement test-takers. This problem is traced partly to
the image of technology in today’s society, where most people think of men when
it comes to technology. If
they do enroll in computer classes, pre-adolescent and teenage girls often find
they are the only girls in the room. Messages about gender and technology start
early in life, when girls get makeup and fashion sets while boys are encouraged
to play computer games and think about how things work. Subtle, even
unconscious bias can prompt parents, teachers and guidance counselors to give
the sexes different study and career advice. Topics like programming and
design, advocates argue, are more likely to engage a generation that imbibed
basic skills as toddlers, and to improve Western ability to compete with Asian
nations that often give far stronger grounding in such subjects. Declining
enrollment in math, science and computing is a concern regardless of gender,
but even more dramatic for girls. Ms. Parmar hopes to secure corporate
sponsorship to expand the effort with coding clubs for girls and more classroom
sessions. In the developing world, the problem is more severe. In many
countries, girls lack access to technology after they quit school because of
discrimination, poverty or early marriage. When you give these girls
technology, they take to it well and want it because they know they need it. Ms.
Parmar sees another opportunity. “Who knows what the devices would be like if
women were creating them?” she said.
I
found this article to be very
interesting and agreed with the information presented. Even in the US,
when you
think about jobs related to technology, you envision men being the ones
that do
the work and not women. Why is that? Why is this a male dominated
occupation? I’m
not sure, maybe it’s because we already live in a male dominated world
which is
why it’s even more important to get girls to want to be in computer
programming.
Technology is a wonderful invention that our society has created today
and the
fact that London sees this and wants to change this stereotype, is
encouraging.
Advocates seem to really want to take the steps needed to get girls at
an early
age interested in technology and for them not to worry if they’re
outnumbered
in classes. It is true that we live in a world today where every country
is
competing with each other, so the fact that the numbers are declining
for
subjects like math, science and computing is unsettling. London needs to
do
whatever they can to try and promote computer technology for both
genders, but especially
females.Expanding women's thinking about different fields and
occupations can also have a positive effect on their identity and self
esteem. They will view themselves as equal to men and know that they are
smart and talented to work in such an incredible field. Like Ms. Parmar
said in the article, who knows what technology will be
developed once girls start creating them? The future for technology is
exciting
and I hope more girls will push up their sleeves and start putting their
beauty
and brains to work.
Leslie Belk
3/8/13
10:40 am
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