It’s well known that the majority of programmers who work at start up companies are male. This becomes evident when we look at various factors such as the names and descriptions of products, to the lists of “Top Professionals” which are typically 95% male.
A consortium of tech companies hopes to change that. Tuesday an announcement came jointly from Twitter, General Electric, eBay and Google that they are joining the initiative called “Girls Who Code“. Their hope is that this will increase the number of young women entering the fields of engineering and programming. To help facilitate this goal, they plan to create a mentoring and teaching program.
The program was founded by former NY City deputy public schools advocate and hedge fund lawyer, Reshma Saujani, who plans to launch the program this summer in New York City. Ms. Saujani also ran for a Congressional seat, but lost the race in the 2010 primaries. She states that of the 57% of female college graduates, only 14% of computer science and engineering degrees go to women.
Twitter recently blogged about its commitment to devote ‘time, energy and money’ to work the Girls Who Code program. Twitter engineer Sara Haider, stated that the company would begin offering “an eight-week intensive program to teach basic principles of computer science and coding as well as sessions on design, research and entrepreneurship.”
Dick Costolo, chief executive of Twitter , echoed the company’s commitment for the project, too. “Our support for this initiative represents our commitment to invest in, encourage and empower more women pursuing opportunities in technology,” he said.
