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In Italy, “Girls Who Code” – young programmers learn to work with hi-tech in school
(ANSA) - ROME, 14 OCT
Bringing little girls and young women closer to coding or computer programming means providing them with a career opportunity and overcoming the gender gap that currently exists in the technology sector. This is the objective of “Coding Girls Rome-USA,” eight days of events dedicated to female students in primary and secondary school in collaboration with the “Girls Who Code” Organisation, the American movement that aims to educate and attract one million young women towards technology by 2020.
Presented today in Rome, the initiative is organized for the European Code Week by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale and the American Embassy in Italy with support from the Ministry of Education, University and Research, Roma Capitale, Sapienza University and Microsoft.
Female students in eight Roman schools will experiment hands on with technology thanks to the help of young women in university and the Girls Who Code tutors. The American movement is only a few years old, but has already created partnerships with Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and Amazon for full immersion programmes: seven weeks during which the young girls learn all about technology, from apps to robotics to animation.
In Italy, the labs will end with a final hackathon, a marathon for the creation of apps and educational programmes. The event will take place entirely in English in view of the increasingly globalized market, which, in fact,can help women earn 9% more than in other sectors. Nonetheless, there are not many women in this sector. In Europe, only 9 programmers out of every 100 are women, while female managers are only 19% and overall women represent less than 30% of the workforce.
However, the “Women Active in the ICT Sector” Studyreveals that if the gender gap were to be levelled, the European GDP would increase by about 9 billion euro per year. (ANSA).
