Ensuring womens place in the tech revolution

While theres no easy way to bridge the gender gap in technology, the nations educators, business executives and community leaders are counting on a tech-based cradle-to-career learning culture to persuade young girls to become the next generation of programmers.

The three Rs are no longer making the grade in todays tech-driven society. To be successful in school, work and life, girls need to be proficient in the big S STEM. Twenty years ago, STEM was a confusing and widely unknown acronym for science, technology, education and mathematics. It is now the trendy buzzword in education, the gold standard for learning life skills and actualizing opportunity. STEM scoring has even been added to the ACT college admissions exams.

In this day and age, computer science is no longer just vocational [training] for getting a job, says former Microsoft executive Hadi Partovi. It is completely foundational for any job you may want to have in the next 20, 30 years. Partovi cofounded Code.org as a way to make computer science available in more schools and increase participation by women and underrepresented students of color.

Washington ranks fourth in the country for technology-based companies but 46th for participation in science and engineering graduate programs. A recent study by the Girl Scouts of America shows that 74 percent of grade school girls in the United States are interested in STEM subjects, but they lose interest in middle school, when only 13 percent list STEM careers as their first choices.

Susan Enfield, superintendent of Highline Public Schools and board member of Washington STEM, a nonprofit advancing excellence, innovation and equity in STEM education throughout the state, believes engineers and entrepreneurs are born in kindergarten classrooms. Quality STEM opportunities need to hook those students when they really love learning, or else everything else will just be a Band-Aid, Enfield says.

Until computer science becomes part of every primary and secondary school curriculum, nonprofit organizations, businesses, schools and coding boot camps are trying to help fill the gap.

The Seattle-based Technology Alliance, an affiliate of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, helped create Ada Developers Academy, a tuition-free programing school for women. As well, dozens of local groups, including Girls Who Code, Codechix, Coding with Kids and the University of Washingtons DawgBytes, have been formed to encourage girls who want to learn about engineering and computer science.

Martina Welke, cofounder and CEO of Zealyst, a Seattle startup that helps other companies improve employee morale and engagement through game playing, is board president of Seattle Women in Technology (WiT), which organizes quarterly events to educate, empower and connect women currently working in technology as well as those interested in pursuing careers in technology. In January, it hosted a sold-out event called Leap Stories, at which women described their experiences taking the leap into technology.

The group is not limited to developers, Welke says of WiT. We encourage women working in various roles to participate, as many of the challenges and stories are similar. My personal mission is to inspire women to pursue leadership roles in technology, whether that be founding a startup or leading a group within a company.

Similarly, the Seattle-based National Girls Collaborative Project works with organizations throughout the country to encourage young girls to enter STEM fields. The group comprises 31 networks of professionals and researchers covering 39 states and facilitating collaboration among 12,800 organizations that serve 8.35 million girls and 4.5 million boys.

Companies throughout the Puget Sound region are teaming up with nonprofits and schools encouraging STEM education for girls. Last year, Seattle-based FlowPlay raised more than $26,000 to fund the fourth annual Girlstart STEM programming summer camp in Bellevue.

Code.org is working with teachers in more than 30 school districts across the United States, including Highline, Tukwila, Shoreline, Enumclaw and Bainbridge Island, to train teachers to start computer science courses in the fall. About 53 million students worldwide have participated in Hour of Code, an annual campaign to demystify computer science and encourage millions to try it for just an hour.

The impact is being seen statewide: School assemblies now feature TED Talks, Code-a-thons, LEGO Leagues and Hour of Code events. And robotics a sport of the mind is gaining popularity. Nearly 10,000 students across Washington participate in more than 800 robotics teams, including Seattles Holy Names Academy, which boasts the only all-girls robotics team in the states FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) program.

Dave Cotter, director of technology at Zulily, which recently hosted a Women Who Code meetup, says his 15-year-old daughter is proof that young girls can thrive in a coding environment. She takes advanced-placement computer science at Holy Names and has been developing her own apps for several years. To her, its like learning a language, Cotter notes. She took Spanish for a couple of years, so why not take Java?