16 ms·

My main takeaway from reading this article and the comments here is: The awareness of this problem is still very nascent and more & more solutions are emerging,

My main takeaway from reading this article and the comments here is: The awareness of this problem is still very nascent and more & more solutions are emerging, as are criticisms of people who are beginning to acknowledge this problem. To hopefully steer this in another direction, and because I have a little girl, what are some resources you all have seen that can help girls become interested and go into technical disciplines? Here are a few of which I am aware. I highlight some companies started by women because they both teach technical skills and can serve as role models. http://www.goldieblox.com/ http://www.goldieblox.com/ - Construction toy sets aimed at girls. http://www.roominatetoy.com/ http://www.roominatetoy.com/ - Electronic DIY kit aimed at girls. http://littlebits.cc/ http://littlebits.cc/ - Electronic DIY kit started by a female entrepreneur. https://www.gethopscotch.com/ https://www.gethopscotch.com/ - An iPad app to teach kids how to program, started by female entrepeneurs http://pbskids.org/scigirls/ http://pbskids.org/scigirls/ - Various activities and videos to teach grade school girls about technology and science. http://www.girlswhocode.com/ http://www.girlswhocode.com/ - Summer school to teach high school girls how to program. http://www.tech-girls.org/ http://www.tech-girls.org/ - Workshops to teach high school girls how to program. http://www.blackgirlscode.com/ http://www.blackgirlscode.com/ - Workshops to teach black grade school to high school girls how to program. http://www.hackbrightacademy.com/ http://www.hackbrightacademy.com/ - Workshops to teach adult women how to program. http://www.girldevelopit.com/ http://www.girldevelopit.com/ - Workshops to teach adult women how to program. There are a few others that I'll add later. Do you know of more too?

melindajb 13y ago
Nicely done, Mike, hope others see this and upvote you.
CCs 13y ago
Thanks Mike!
SandersAK 13y ago
this is probably the most constructive thing anyone could have done. this is a great list. thanks!
mellis 13y ago
My former advisor, Leah Buechley, and other friends created this introduction to programming and electronics via e-textiles and the LilyPad Arduino: http://sewelectric.org/ http://sewelectric.org/ More here: http://highlowtech.org http://highlowtech.org
kens 13y ago
Based on my daughter and her friends, involvement in Lego Mindstorms robotics and First Lego League competitions is another great way to get girls interested in programming and technology.
- bmmayer1 13y ago
  YES. I am male, but this is how I got into hacking. Absolutely brilliant way to merge tech and play.
- duaneb 13y ago
  I can second this—I am not a woman myself, but my dear sister got into programming that way. (I did too.)
- Crake 13y ago
  I wanted a Lego Mindstorm kit so badly as a kid, but my parents never got me one. I think my life would have been a lot different if my home situation had at least afforded me that one thing.
crassus 13y ago
And what are you going to do if your daughter wants to be a veterinarian? Is that a problem?
- oskarth 13y ago
  Why would he? And why are you asking this question? There's nothing in what he wrote that indicates that he would do that. Please don't bring negativity into this surprisingly positive and constructive sub thread.
  - crassus 13y ago
    Point taken. I object to the phrasing though. People having their own individual interests, sometimes non-technical, is not a problem. It's cool to expose people to options though! I wish I had access to a male-friendly version of a program like one of these when I was growing up.
- rhizome 13y ago
  Do you not know that Veterinary Medicine is heavily populated with women?
  - jamesbritt 13y ago
    I think that was part of the point being made.
- mikeleeorg 13y ago
  Sorry you're being downvoted. It's a fair question. I plan on exposing her to as many topics as I can. I'll support whatever path she takes. My job, as I see it, is partly to give her a taste of as many topics as possible, then to help guide her as her interests begin to emerge.
  - crassus 13y ago
    Thanks. I find it odd that supposedly pro-female movements denigrate all the things that women have participated in over the years. Women have always been with us, and they haven't been sitting around all day doing nothing! But we tell young girls nowadays that to be valuable, they have to do things that boys are doing. A true pro-female movement would first of all recognize the value of all the work of women over the millennia. And secondly, they would fight against discrimination. But the desire for equal representation in every field comes out perversely anti-female, since it values down everything females are doing and values up everything males are doing. If I have a daughter, it will be okay to me if she wants to be a scientist or a stay-at-home mom. My mom played a big role in my life for which I am forever grateful. That too is valuable.
drdeadringer 13y ago
Also: Society of Women Engineers [SWE].
ReadEvalPost 13y ago
For role models, Limor Fried (owner of http://www.adafruit.com/ http://www.adafruit.com/) and Vi Hart (http://www.youtube.com/user/Vihart http://www.youtube.com/user/Vihart) are both super awesome!
- amagumori 13y ago
  don't forget jeri ellsworth, who is imo the most talented hacker out there today, male or female... http://www.youtube.com/user/jeriellsworth http://www.youtube.com/user/jeriellsworth
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
stephp 13y ago
To add my own experiential insight as a female who started coding at 11 (without the aid or encouragment of a parent like you!)... Reflecting on my thought processes at that age, I remember it being entirely about 2 things: 1. Expression. Nothing could have sounded more dull than building aimlessly-- I wanted to DESIGN. (My definition of this being "carrying out a specific communicative purpose through look and function.") I wanted to make a website that demonstrated my tastes and values to my friends. (Which is likely why I went straight to websites and not desktop software.) 2. Social dynamics. Similar but different to the aforementioned point, I wanted to actually affect other people with what I was making. As a young girl, that typically meant impressing potential friends and boyfriends. I had a poetry site at one point. I made sites for a fake band my girl friends and I talked about forming. I had tons of blogs. I really should have segued into games at that time, as that would have fallen in the same category, but sadly I did not. While I know every human being is different, I was what you'd consider a "girly girl." So I believe the difference between myself and a young boy was quite pronounced in a stereotypically feminine direction-- which is where one should be investigating a subject like this, in my opinion.
- wanda 13y ago
  >"expression" >"design" >"communicative purpose" >"social dynamics" >"affect people with what I was making" >"impressing friends/boyfriends" >"coding" >websites No need to declare that you're a blogger. It's obvious.
  - stephp 13y ago
    I'm not sure if this is an insult, but it reads like one.
    - lamontcg 13y ago
      yep. and the culture of internet snark and bullying certainly isn't helping this problem.
  - tadfisher 13y ago
    That was untoward and uncalled for.
pbhjpbhj 13y ago
Aside: I've looked at that BlackGirlsCode link a bit more and I'm quite shocked that such segregation is encouraged, lauded even. Now there's some argument to support educating the sexes separately but if you're an asian girl living in Brooklyn (say) you can't go? Just because you're Asian ... ??? Really? What if you're half-Asian+half-African, how about your skins black but you're South American. Damn. Do people really think you get rid of negative discrimination by doing more of it; how can such racism be positive? From their website: "*Sadly, San Francisco’s digital divide falls along the same racial and social fault lines that characterize so many of society’s issues. White households are twice as likely to have home Internet access as African American houses. Bayview Hunters Point, Crocker Amazon, Chinatown, Visitacion Valley, and the Tenderloin have significantly lower rates of home technology use than the rest of the city. Sixty-six percent of Latinos report having a home computer, as opposed to 88 percent of Caucasians.* *Through community outreach programs such as workshops and after school programs, we introduce underprivileged girls to basic programming skills in languages like Scratch and Ruby on Rails.*" If the racial divide is so disheartening why add your own. If you want to help the disadvantaged then help the disadvantaged not "all the disadvantaged with the right skin colour". Damn. [redacted] Edit: I've redacted my over-flamy end comment.
- smtddr 13y ago
  Every time... Theory: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6441795 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6441795 Potential examples: 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6885123 - Homeless coder starts app 2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6365495 - Africans genetically more corrupt? 3. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6448409 - Rick Ross's history 4. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6857739 - Nelson Mandela dies 5. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6035263 - (Most obvious)Resume with black vs white name 6. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6902563 - Cover up of racist+sexist mindset in Harvard 7. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6907915 - Homeless coder finishes app 8. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6975732 - BlackGirlsCode event I'm going to just keep on collecting these links and post the list on every instance I see. This will be added as the 9th.
  - 13y ago
avenger123 13y ago
Just started looking at this but could be really great: Super Scratch Programming Adventure! http://www.nostarch.com/scratch http://www.nostarch.com/scratch
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
SamBoogie 13y ago
Hey great list. I'm working on a game that teaches programming and game design. It's now available for download at www.betathegame.com. One of our co-founders is a female!
marquis 13y ago
http://railsgirls.com http://railsgirls.com is an excellent program.
mikeleeorg 13y ago
Some more links: http://www.engineergirl.org/ http://www.engineergirl.org/ http://www.techneedsgirls.org/ http://www.techneedsgirls.org/ http://www.techgirlz.org/ http://www.techgirlz.org/ http://www.stemettes.org/ http://www.stemettes.org/ http://www.dotdiva.org/ http://www.dotdiva.org/ http://learninglabs.org/members/girls-learning-code/ http://learninglabs.org/members/girls-learning-code/ http://www.girldevelopit.com/ http://www.girldevelopit.com/ And I'm sure there are lots of great entrepreneurial minds here who are building similar solutions too.
jlees 13y ago
I linked some mentoring resources further down, specific to connecting high schoolers with female role models. (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7039716 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7039716) RailsBridge (http://www.railsbridge.org http://www.railsbridge.org) is aimed at adult women beginners too. Technovation Challenge (http://iridescentlearning.org/programs/technovation-challenge/ http://iridescentlearning.org/programs/technovation-challeng...) is a worldwide program for high school girls to develop engineering and entrepreneurship skills. I was a mentor for this locally and it was great fun. Super smart girls. Little Miss Geek (http://littlemissgeek.org/ http://littlemissgeek.org/) runs great workshops in London high schools. A 14 year old girl built an app thanks to inspiration at this workshop and now speaks out publicly about how fun it was. Fantastic role model. (http://www.theguardian.com/women-in-leadership/2013/oct/15/being-a-geek-is-cool-i-am-one http://www.theguardian.com/women-in-leadership/2013/oct/15/b...) Edit: Also, if you're searching for this topic, "girls in STEM" (or SET, SETI, SEAT, etc) is another great source of resources aimed at encouraging girls in science. I'm not a parent or teacher, so I'm not in touch with what high schoolers find interesting these days. But imagine if there were a program backed by top VCs getting startup engineers, especially ensuring visible minorities among the bunch, into high schools to break down how their popular apps or games du jour work. Rather than "I want to learn to program, ok, let's print out 'Hello World'", outline the systems thinking behind the apps and services that the audience uses every day. Maybe it could even be effective as an online video series. Maybe it already exists. Still: There are things we all can do if we actually care about helping change mindsets early on. Even many smart teenage boys (so I am told, see disclaimer above) don't want to go into engineering because it's nerdy and unpopular. We need diversity on the inside, not just on the outside.
callmeed 13y ago
http://railsgirls.org http://railsgirls.org

melindajb 13y ago

Nicely done, Mike, hope others see this and upvote you.

CCs 13y ago

Thanks Mike!

SandersAK 13y ago

this is probably the most constructive thing anyone could have done. this is a great list. thanks!

mellis 13y ago

My former advisor, Leah Buechley, and other friends created this introduction to programming and electronics via e-textiles and the LilyPad Arduino: http://sewelectric.org/ http://sewelectric.org/ More here: http://highlowtech.org http://highlowtech.org

kens 13y ago

Based on my daughter and her friends, involvement in Lego Mindstorms robotics and First Lego League competitions is another great way to get girls interested in programming and technology.

bmmayer1 13y ago
YES. I am male, but this is how I got into hacking. Absolutely brilliant way to merge tech and play.
duaneb 13y ago
I can second this—I am not a woman myself, but my dear sister got into programming that way. (I did too.)
Crake 13y ago
I wanted a Lego Mindstorm kit so badly as a kid, but my parents never got me one. I think my life would have been a lot different if my home situation had at least afforded me that one thing.

crassus 13y ago

And what are you going to do if your daughter wants to be a veterinarian? Is that a problem?

oskarth 13y ago
Why would he? And why are you asking this question? There's nothing in what he wrote that indicates that he would do that. Please don't bring negativity into this surprisingly positive and constructive sub thread.
- crassus 13y ago
  Point taken. I object to the phrasing though. People having their own individual interests, sometimes non-technical, is not a problem. It's cool to expose people to options though! I wish I had access to a male-friendly version of a program like one of these when I was growing up.
rhizome 13y ago
Do you not know that Veterinary Medicine is heavily populated with women?
- jamesbritt 13y ago
  I think that was part of the point being made.
mikeleeorg 13y ago
Sorry you're being downvoted. It's a fair question. I plan on exposing her to as many topics as I can. I'll support whatever path she takes. My job, as I see it, is partly to give her a taste of as many topics as possible, then to help guide her as her interests begin to emerge.
- crassus 13y ago
  Thanks. I find it odd that supposedly pro-female movements denigrate all the things that women have participated in over the years. Women have always been with us, and they haven't been sitting around all day doing nothing! But we tell young girls nowadays that to be valuable, they have to do things that boys are doing. A true pro-female movement would first of all recognize the value of all the work of women over the millennia. And secondly, they would fight against discrimination. But the desire for equal representation in every field comes out perversely anti-female, since it values down everything females are doing and values up everything males are doing. If I have a daughter, it will be okay to me if she wants to be a scientist or a stay-at-home mom. My mom played a big role in my life for which I am forever grateful. That too is valuable.

drdeadringer 13y ago

Also: Society of Women Engineers [SWE].

ReadEvalPost 13y ago

For role models, Limor Fried (owner of http://www.adafruit.com/ http://www.adafruit.com/) and Vi Hart (http://www.youtube.com/user/Vihart http://www.youtube.com/user/Vihart) are both super awesome!

amagumori 13y ago
don't forget jeri ellsworth, who is imo the most talented hacker out there today, male or female... http://www.youtube.com/user/jeriellsworth http://www.youtube.com/user/jeriellsworth

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

stephp 13y ago

To add my own experiential insight as a female who started coding at 11 (without the aid or encouragment of a parent like you!)... Reflecting on my thought processes at that age, I remember it being entirely about 2 things: 1. Expression. Nothing could have sounded more dull than building aimlessly-- I wanted to DESIGN. (My definition of this being "carrying out a specific communicative purpose through look and function.") I wanted to make a website that demonstrated my tastes and values to my friends. (Which is likely why I went straight to websites and not desktop software.) 2. Social dynamics. Similar but different to the aforementioned point, I wanted to actually affect other people with what I was making. As a young girl, that typically meant impressing potential friends and boyfriends. I had a poetry site at one point. I made sites for a fake band my girl friends and I talked about forming. I had tons of blogs. I really should have segued into games at that time, as that would have fallen in the same category, but sadly I did not. While I know every human being is different, I was what you'd consider a "girly girl." So I believe the difference between myself and a young boy was quite pronounced in a stereotypically feminine direction-- which is where one should be investigating a subject like this, in my opinion.

wanda 13y ago
>"expression" >"design" >"communicative purpose" >"social dynamics" >"affect people with what I was making" >"impressing friends/boyfriends" >"coding" >websites No need to declare that you're a blogger. It's obvious.
- stephp 13y ago
  I'm not sure if this is an insult, but it reads like one.
  - lamontcg 13y ago
    yep. and the culture of internet snark and bullying certainly isn't helping this problem.
- tadfisher 13y ago
  That was untoward and uncalled for.

pbhjpbhj 13y ago

Aside: I've looked at that BlackGirlsCode link a bit more and I'm quite shocked that such segregation is encouraged, lauded even. Now there's some argument to support educating the sexes separately but if you're an asian girl living in Brooklyn (say) you can't go? Just because you're Asian ... ??? Really? What if you're half-Asian+half-African, how about your skins black but you're South American. Damn. Do people really think you get rid of negative discrimination by doing more of it; how can such racism be positive? From their website: "*Sadly, San Francisco’s digital divide falls along the same racial and social fault lines that characterize so many of society’s issues. White households are twice as likely to have home Internet access as African American houses. Bayview Hunters Point, Crocker Amazon, Chinatown, Visitacion Valley, and the Tenderloin have significantly lower rates of home technology use than the rest of the city. Sixty-six percent of Latinos report having a home computer, as opposed to 88 percent of Caucasians.* *Through community outreach programs such as workshops and after school programs, we introduce underprivileged girls to basic programming skills in languages like Scratch and Ruby on Rails.*" If the racial divide is so disheartening why add your own. If you want to help the disadvantaged then help the disadvantaged not "all the disadvantaged with the right skin colour". Damn. [redacted] Edit: I've redacted my over-flamy end comment.

smtddr 13y ago
Every time... Theory: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6441795 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6441795 Potential examples: 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6885123 - Homeless coder starts app 2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6365495 - Africans genetically more corrupt? 3. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6448409 - Rick Ross's history 4. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6857739 - Nelson Mandela dies 5. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6035263 - (Most obvious)Resume with black vs white name 6. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6902563 - Cover up of racist+sexist mindset in Harvard 7. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6907915 - Homeless coder finishes app 8. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6975732 - BlackGirlsCode event I'm going to just keep on collecting these links and post the list on every instance I see. This will be added as the 9th.
- 13y ago

avenger123 13y ago

Just started looking at this but could be really great: Super Scratch Programming Adventure! http://www.nostarch.com/scratch http://www.nostarch.com/scratch

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

SamBoogie 13y ago

Hey great list. I'm working on a game that teaches programming and game design. It's now available for download at www.betathegame.com. One of our co-founders is a female!

marquis 13y ago

http://railsgirls.com http://railsgirls.com is an excellent program.

mikeleeorg 13y ago

Some more links: http://www.engineergirl.org/ http://www.engineergirl.org/ http://www.techneedsgirls.org/ http://www.techneedsgirls.org/ http://www.techgirlz.org/ http://www.techgirlz.org/ http://www.stemettes.org/ http://www.stemettes.org/ http://www.dotdiva.org/ http://www.dotdiva.org/ http://learninglabs.org/members/girls-learning-code/ http://learninglabs.org/members/girls-learning-code/ http://www.girldevelopit.com/ http://www.girldevelopit.com/ And I'm sure there are lots of great entrepreneurial minds here who are building similar solutions too.

jlees 13y ago

I linked some mentoring resources further down, specific to connecting high schoolers with female role models. (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7039716 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7039716) RailsBridge (http://www.railsbridge.org http://www.railsbridge.org) is aimed at adult women beginners too. Technovation Challenge (http://iridescentlearning.org/programs/technovation-challenge/ http://iridescentlearning.org/programs/technovation-challeng...) is a worldwide program for high school girls to develop engineering and entrepreneurship skills. I was a mentor for this locally and it was great fun. Super smart girls. Little Miss Geek (http://littlemissgeek.org/ http://littlemissgeek.org/) runs great workshops in London high schools. A 14 year old girl built an app thanks to inspiration at this workshop and now speaks out publicly about how fun it was. Fantastic role model. (http://www.theguardian.com/women-in-leadership/2013/oct/15/being-a-geek-is-cool-i-am-one http://www.theguardian.com/women-in-leadership/2013/oct/15/b...) Edit: Also, if you're searching for this topic, "girls in STEM" (or SET, SETI, SEAT, etc) is another great source of resources aimed at encouraging girls in science. I'm not a parent or teacher, so I'm not in touch with what high schoolers find interesting these days. But imagine if there were a program backed by top VCs getting startup engineers, especially ensuring visible minorities among the bunch, into high schools to break down how their popular apps or games du jour work. Rather than "I want to learn to program, ok, let's print out 'Hello World'", outline the systems thinking behind the apps and services that the audience uses every day. Maybe it could even be effective as an online video series. Maybe it already exists. Still: There are things we all can do if we actually care about helping change mindsets early on. Even many smart teenage boys (so I am told, see disclaimer above) don't want to go into engineering because it's nerdy and unpopular. We need diversity on the inside, not just on the outside.

callmeed 13y ago

http://railsgirls.org http://railsgirls.org