In recent years there has been much talk about the benefits of learning to code. Coding has now become such a vital skill that they have introduced it into the national curriculum. For a long time, Women were at the forefront of computer science, and it was quite recently that we celebrated Ada Lovelace day. Ada Lovelace was a computer scientist and took part in writing the first published computer programme. It was around the mid-eighties that female involvement in computer science declined, as popular culture created the tech geek, with the likes of films such as Weird Science and War Games, computers became boys toys and even in the late nineties a study showed that parents were much more inclined to buy a computer for their son rather than their daughter, regardless of whether she showed an interest in computers.
However, with the increasing necessity to be able to code has reopened the world of computer science to women. Supermodel Karlie Kloss started offering scholarships for High School Girls called ‘Kode With Karlie’ as a way of getting young girls into coding after she herself took coding classes and realised how vital skill was. A quick google search and you can find all sorts of ‘code with’s such as Code with Anna and Elsa and Coding with Angry Birds to introduce young children to code. So what else is there apart from scholarships and online programmes? Well, She Codes is a programme that gets women of all ages, all skill sets and all walks of life the opportunity to talk to other women about coding. She Codes Brighton work with Code Bar Brighton to host workshops in which they put together software systems as well as mentoring and putting on workshops. They also have a monthly catch up where women can share their love of coding with other likeminded women. Soon enough, coding will be as vital as basic maths skills and She Codes ensures that no one will be left behind. She Codes is a wider community that aims to reach 50% of female developers in the hi-tech industry within the decade and they are doing this by encouraging women to open up their own branches of She Codes all over the world, from Israel to right here in Brighton and Hove.
Unfortunately, it appears their website is down at the minute but you can find out more about coding and tutorials at codebar.io
