Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code, discusses the widening gender gap in technical fields despite women representing the majority of the US workforce.
Disclosure
Saujani: Girls Who Code raised seed capital from individual tech executives
“When I first started Girl Who Code, we couldn't get a foundation to support us, and our first seed money came from Rochelle Parham, who was a CMO at eBay, and Beth Comstock, a CMO of GE, and Dick Hensel at Twitter, and Jack Dorsey”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Saujani: Coding education lifts entire families into the middle class
“And that we have seen entire families being able to be lift up into the middle class by being, by getting access to coding and technology and getting opportunities to work in these companies.”
Insight
Saujani: Coding inherently teaches students to normalize and accept failure
“Coding is about failing. Like, it is, I mean, I'm learning how to code. I've been learning how to code. It is so frustrating. You know, especially the type A woman who wants to get my code right all the time, and that is what I love about the work that we do i…”
Disclosure
Saujani: 80% of Girls Who Code students are minorities, median score 89%
“Half our girls are from free reduced lunch, 80% are minority, and what's so incredible is that, you know, the median school on the technical survey, which is the equivalent of basically a college CS one-on-one exam is an 89%”
Assertion Supported
Saujani: Girls Who Code scaled to 3,000 students in three years
“Over the past three years, we've been able to grow from 20 girls in 2012 to 3000 today.”
Assertion Partly supported
Saujani: Female doctors and lawyers grew from 10% to 45% since 1970s
“In the 19 seventies, only 10% of doctors and lawyers were women, and today that number is 45%.”