Flatiron's class enrollment has been equally split between male and female students for over three years. The tech industry itself, of course, struggles with a gender imbalance. "We're very big believers that a diversity of opinion through background creates the most engaging place for people to learn," says Flatiron dean and cofounder, Avi Flombaum. "The more perspectives there are, the more backgrounds people come from, the more life experiences that are different creates a really amazing environment for people to grow together in ways they would never be able to grow if they were surrounded by people just like them."
Flombaum believes that teaching students how to express themselves through code is key to keeping students especially young people engaged. "Showing them that they can generate music with code allows them to clone or copy their favorite artist, to put a little of their own personality and their own opinions to it," he says. "When they do actually build apps, we allow them to pick a project and pick a place where they want to improve the world and contribute ways in which they are expressing themselves, not us. We’re giving them the tool set or the vocabulary with which to model a phenomenon or project or concept. Code really becomes the medium, and the end result becomes what they are more interested in."
"Karlie is just an amazing voice to show young women they can be so many more things: They don’t have to make myopic or binary choices about being into fashion or being into science, or being a programmer or being an artist," Flombaum says. "Karlie Kloss could be doing a million other things with her time, but this is what she is choosing, this is a message she's communicating to the world: that women can do whatever they want, that they're capable, and all they need is a little inspiration to reach out and look for something more."
Karlie isn't trying to expose this gender imbalance in the tech industry rather she wants to provide the launch pad for women to express their creative sides in a industry with endless possibilities. While the tech industry remains hugely male dominated, I think over time we'll see more women take leading roles and create and collaborate to create apps that'll help shape the way society functions. All these changes will have positive profound effects on the economy.
Link: http://www.fastcompany.com/3058403/most-creative-people/behind-the-scenes-at-karlie-klosss-new-coding-camp-for-girls
This is a great way to get women into the tech industry. All you hear about is the male dominated firms in Silicon valley. However, if more women get into the lucrative programming industry, they can blaze the path for other women to follow them, and diversity in any industry leads to a growth in productivity and innovation.
ReplyDeleteI think it is great what Karlie is doing. My past article was on the pay gap. In the article it said that pay tended to decrease in industries that had women enter it. It will be interesting to see if the same thing happens in the tech industry when women enter this work force in larger numbers. The entrance of women into this field is far behind and it would be great to see that change.
ReplyDeleteThis seems like a great program that Karlie is supporting. I think that coding definitely is becoming an increasing valuable skill. This is because more and more of our world is becoming automated including many jobs, so coding is rising in importance to support our changing world. It's important that this is not a male dominated industry especially as it is establishing itself as such an important industry.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a great program from a very unexpected person. The U.S. is in great need of people in the technology field and women do not make up a large part of the field. This being said, by getting more women interested in the field, the industry can be strengthened, making the U.S. more competitive with other countries in the technology industry. This would increase human capital and lead the U.S. to be more productive.
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