Discouraging Girls from Pursuing Technology Career
Programs like Black Girls Code and Girls Who Code are organizations that are meant to get young women into the technology field, teaching them the basic skills and what careers they can utilize their skills. However, some people think it will fail.
I found a blog on blogspot.com titled “You can give a woman a CS degree,” that talked about how programs like Black Girls Club will fail because women don’t like competitive jobs and encouraging them to pursue a technology career is “a serious career disservice.”
The blogger starts by questioning why the world needs to focus on young girls and the women who are already in programming are the mentors that want them to change the role of women in technology in 5 to 10 years. The blogger believes that focusing on young women, means no one is paying attention to the women who are here now and that they are overlooked. That’s where she is wrong.
Women who have been in the technology field for many years, are not overlooked. They are actually encouraging the young girls, showing them what they can do with web design skills, Photoshop skills, etc. They are very well respected in their field and are given special acknowledgements.
I have had the pleasure of talking with two women who are the president and vice president of Black Girls Code New York Chapter. Both of them said that girls who have been in the program have come back to help mentor young girls and some have gone on to pursue their career and use their degrees.
The blogger also mentioned that we hear more about 16-year old interns more than women with years of experience in their pocket. The simple reason is today, not a lot of young girls are interested in science. So having girls between the ages of 13 and 16 making non-profit organizations, or making groundbreaking technology so early is a bit of a rare sight. So when a teen is discovered going beyond their talents, everyone wants to know what is their motivation. They are used as examples to show that women can take giant leaps into technology or whatever they do.
The last sentence of this blog gets to me. It states, “Programming is like writing. If you CAN be discouraged, you SHOULD be discouraged.”
That is not fair to anyone. People can be discouraged from doing something, but it is their decision to let themselves be discouraged. Let yourself be discouraged, or prove those people wrong and keep doing what you want to do. This blog to me, is discouraging all women into pursuing technology. So this sentence is a bit hypocritical.
To read the blog, go to this link.
