The CEO of Code First:Girls, Anna Brailsford, gave an interesting seminar about the number of women in the tech industry as part of the Big Picture Seminar Series.
Anna opened by introducing her career history and how it led to founding Code First: Girls, in her words, an NGO "dedicated to transforming tech by providing the skills, space and inspiration for women to become kick-ass developers and future leaders". Code First: Girls has trained over 10 thousand women how to code, either by signing up on their website or through their network of over 40 employers and 50 universities.
The young CEO spoke about the importance of tech in virtually any business model now - as every entrepreneur will digitalise their business using mobile apps and websites. But the most important point raised was the lack of female participation in the industry, with less than 8% of women attending computer science classes to prepare for today's increasing demand of coders.
Ms Brailsford tested student perceptions on the female participation ratio in the coding industry, whose low numbers can be explained by several reasons, including a lack of confidence and inexistent role models (do you know any famous female tech CEO's?). Not only did Anna encourage practices such as RBS's Female Entrepreneurship Fund of £1bn, or Goldman Sachs' 2020 rule for companies to have a form of leadership diversity for an IPO, she argues that computer science should be included earlier in students' syllabus to encourage everyone to pursue a career in tech.
It is never too late for a career in tech, which is why Code First: Girls encourages every interested woman to get in contact for free training, a very popular offer amongst the participants to this Big Picture Seminar.
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