The myth that girls can never learn to code as well as boys is unfounded. It affects not only women themselves, who would like to do what they love and, possibly, build a successful career in the IT sector, but also the economy as a whole.
Girls can become excellent computer specialists, as evidenced by well-known examples.
Famous female programmers
Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)
English mathematician and concurrently the wife of the famous romantic poet Byron. She can be called a programming pioneer. Ada is known for creating the world's first computer program and coining the terms “cycle” and “work cell”.
Grace Hopper (1906-1992)
An American scientist, creator of the first compiler, developer of COBOL, one of the first high-level programming languages. She wrote programs for the Harvard Mark I computer and popularized the concept of program debugging. The Cray XE6 “Hopper” supercomputer at the Department of Energy Research Computing Center (NERSC) was named after Grace.
Anita Borg (1949-2003)
An American computer scientist and founder of Systers, a community for women engaged in computer technology.
Marissa Meyer (born 1975)
Former Yahoo CEO and Google's first female engineer.
Why can girls be great IT professionals?
Sociological and psychological studies show that women are more empathic, which allows them to be better team leaders, and are easier to adapt to changes and unforeseen situations than men. Women's flexibility in thinking helps them make rational and creative decisions.
With the development and growth of the IT sector, women programmers are as needed as men. Girls can build a successful career and receive the same high pay for their work as boys. It is only necessary to overcome the stereotype that girls find it more difficult to learn technical subjects. Programming is perfect for anyone who thinks big.
Why should girls learn to program even if they don't plan to dedicate their lives to the IT industry?
Here are a few reasons:
- In today's digital society, people who communicate to a computer like “you” are in any case more likely to succeed, no matter what field they work in.
- Programming develops not only cognitive and analytical skills, but also creative skills. Girls can learn how to create their own projects, develop applications, and implement animation ideas, which will definitely come in handy in the future.
- The ability to code develops logical thinking and the ability to solve problems independently. Programming skills will help girls learn how to manage tasks, breaking them down into smaller ones, find a way out of any difficult situation, and take responsibility for their decisions and choices.
- An important advantage of learning to program will be to increase self-esteem. Girls who know how to code don't think they're worse at technical subjects than boys, but understand that they can achieve anything they want if they work hard and diligently.
Girly communities
In today's digital space, you can find various supporting communities for girls who are programming. Isabelle Sier is the founder of one of these virtual spaces. Her organization is called Girls Will Code.
Filipino-American Isabelle Sier started coding when she was 10 years old. After noticing the girl's success in math, her schoolteacher suggested that she study programming. The girl was enrolled in online courses, where she started learning HTML and JavaScript.
Isabel decided to launch the Girls Will Code project because she thinks it's much easier to study together. Now she herself conducts programming courses for children, and also organizes various campaigns to launch in-depth IT classes in regular schools.
If you want your child (whether it's a girl or a boy) to learn to code cool, sign her or him up for free trial lesson to Progkids online school. Our experienced teachers will find an approach to every young talent and create a unique creative atmosphere in the classroom where children will want to create and create their own IT projects!
