In 2020, women accounted for 26% of computing jobs. Because this is a low percentage relative to the portion of women making up the overall workforce, Girls Who Code’s “Missing Code” campaign is set to illustrate how important women are in technology.
The campaign offers a glimpse of this importance by mocking-up the internet and displaying via a portal how the internet would look absent the code written by women. Through this campaign Girls Who Code aims to not just showcase the major contributions of women in tech, but to put an exclamation point on the misperceptions about what programmers look like.
Reshma Saujani, CEO and founder of Girls Who Code, further explains that, “There is still a perception out there that coding isn’t for girls, but that’s not true—we know that a huge part of the web was coded by women. With this campaign, we’re hoping to inspire the next generation of women coders by showing them what the world would look like if they weren’t building it, designing it, coding it.”
Since their launch in 2012, the nonprofit Girls Who Code has remained focused on their mission to close the gender gap in technology by inspiring, educating, and equipping young women with the computer skills necessary to succeed in today’s marketplace. In total their efforts have reached 300,000 girls through in-person programming and over 500 million through their other broader works and outreach. Their efforts are helping to build the women tech leaders of tomorrow.
“We needed something that grabs attention and changes the way people see this industry,” said Mojo Supermarket’s founder and Chief Creative Officer, Mo Said. “Everyone thinks of coders as nerdy guys in loose fitting hoodies. We wanted to engage teens and actually change that perception. How do you show that the internet needs women coders? By showing just how much it would suck without them.”
The Girls Who Code “Missing Code” event ran from December 7th through the ensuing week with the support of Lyda Hill Philanthropies’ IF/THEN Initiative and in partnership with Mojo Supermarket.
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