By Whitney Pastorek

Females are the fastest-growing online demographic, and studies have shown that companies with women in management tend to perform a great deal better. Yet the tech industry remains a primarily male-dominated field. And jobs in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math) are growing rapidly, but women make up a tiny percentage of the people going after those jobs, despite being nearly half of the overall workforce.

To reverse these trends, New York City-based summer program Girls Who Code grabs young women between the ages of 13 to 17 and engages them in computer science, web design, robotics and more, helping to overcome gender stereotypes, inspire passionate learning, and teach the next generation of female leaders to dream big.

2 Comments

1. 1. TTLG 05:46 PM 10/1/12

   This sounds more like one of those education programs that are intended to make money more than anything else. My bet is that the girls selected for this program will be those who already show the greatest interest and ability in STEM areas. These will then be compared to the general population of girls to "show" that the program is a success.
   
   If you really want to get more girls interested, you should have a program that engages the entire school population, not just a select few. You never know which person will catch the science bug. You also need to do it as early on as possible. My guess is that any program which does not begin until after puberty will probably not have any significant effect.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

2. 2. bossme 01:26 PM 10/3/12

   I so much doubt the success chance of this program. Just another business means I guess.
   
   isn't it time we all concentrate on things each person / gender knows how to do best rather than wasting resources in competing and working in other peoples'/genders shoes?
   
   It's because of competitions like this that brought us this far and gave us this problem that we have today... ladies assuming guys roles and guys assuming ladies roles.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this