The tech world is generally a male-dominated field, not just in the U.S. but probably the same can be said locally. According to a post by YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, the lesser number of women in tech is due to a lot of girls not seeing that many positive role models for them in pop culture. According to a study of popular films in 11 countries, there are fewer than 20 percent of computer science or tech roles that are held by women.
So, YouTube has decided on their part to help address the issue and make the public aware by streaming filmmaker Lesley Chilcott’s (of An Incovenient Truth and Waiting for Superman fame) documentary film CODEGIRL until November 5th, which is before the film makes its theatrical debut.
“It’s really difficult to want to be what you can’t see,” says one of the girls who took part in this Technovation competition. And the film hopes to help out in a way to bring awareness the issue of having more women in the tech industry.
The film follows over 5,000 girls from 60 countries as they compete in the global entrepreneurship and coding competitions Technovation. It showed their journey of the girls for around three months where they had to develop an app that solves an issue of their community, learn to code, interact with mentors, and pitch their ideas. The prize for the winning team is U$10,000 in funding and support.
Have the little girls or young women or anyone in your life watch the film and maybe they might find some sort of inspiration in it. You can also show your support for the film by sharing it with the hashtag #rallyforcodegirl.
