While debates about issues related to women in the workforce rage, one thing is certain: women continue to be woefully underrepresented in certain fields. Specifically, only a fraction of graduates in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, medicine) fields are women. There have been efforts in recent years to change that. Some graduate schools offer special scholarships and fellowships to women who are entering these underrepresented areas. Other programs try to encourage school-age girls to get interested in scientific fields.
In a post on Twitter’s blog today the social media company announced that they were partnering with one such organization, Girls Who Code. Girls Who Code is an organization focused on introducing high school-age girls to technological and engineering fields – computer science, specifically. On the organization’s website they note that women account for a mere 14% of the computer science degrees received each year, despite receiving 57% of all bachelor degrees overall.
This summer in New York Girls Who Code will be holding an eight-week program that will teach basic coding and computer science to high school girls. Girls who participate in the program will also be paired with a female mentor from one of several participating tech companies – including Twitter. The goal is to inspire participants to pursue careers in technological fields while providing connections to possible job resources later on.
For more information on Girls Who Code, you can check out their website.