Competence is not gender: on gender balance and the trend in the development of female coding

With the development of society and technology, the influence of gender stereotypes is becoming less and less: for example, it can no longer be said that the traditionally male field of IT is “not for girls”. In this article, we did not set ourselves the task of writing about the difficulties and differences in the IT industry or disclosing 10 life hacks for building a successful career as a girl coder. Much has been written about this, by the way, one of the author's articles that inspired us to this publication. The beautiful half is more and more involved in the technology industry and is making significant progress there - you can argue and compare numbers, but there is no point in denying the trend. In this article, we want to reflect with you on what the vector of development of this trend will be in the near future.
 

 


It is noteworthy that many girls from IT do not notice gender differences in their work: men and women can be equally emotional and rational, personal characteristics are important - the ability to concentrate, solve complex problems, and learn quickly. Competence does not have sex - interestingly, only the girls themselves think so?
The largest corporations support this global trend: IBM, Facebook and Twitter. Various organizations and communities, such as Women Who Code, Django Girls, Black Girls Code, Girl Develop It, She Codes and others, regularly conduct training programs and hackathons, summer internships for girls in IT. The Girl Geek organization unites girls from various technical specialties, and its founder Tammy Batow holds Girl Geek Dinners in New York, where IT girls can chat and exchange contacts in an informal setting.
 
Russian companies do not stand aside - there are more and more communities supporting girls-coders. For example, Ladies Code provides training for girls who want to develop in the IT field. At the municipal level, a number of regions are considering strategic decisions in favor of the development of female coding. Every year the number of girls entering technical specialties is increasing. The largest domestic companies note that more and more women come to technical positions. Employees share their personal experience, noting that there are no special gender differences in IT, it happens that girls themselves are afraid to go into the profession of a programmer because of the power of prejudice about gender inequality.

What do you think are the reasons?

In secular society today, women, along with men, have all the opportunities to learn the technical profession: obtaining the necessary knowledge both in theory and in practice during an internship in a leading company, developing personal qualities such as strength of character, determination, flexibility and ability to achieve results .
 
Skeptics will argue that even in the case of a successful interview for most girls in IT, the growth opportunities in the company are more modest, and the career ceiling is lower than that of a man in a similar position.
 
What do you think, the statement that it is almost impossible to achieve success and make a career as a leader for a woman, is it true or another gender stereotype?
 
We are confident that an enthusiastic and caring professional with the necessary competencies with excellent personal qualities will be able to achieve success and career development in any industry. So, for example, the team of the United Frontal System program has many examples where girls show excellent results in the areas of development, testing and design.
 
Girls come to the profession out of curiosity, with an interest in technology and a desire to find out how digital mechanisms work. Many are driven by the desire for creativity - IT is reflected today in all sectors and spheres of modern life, healthy ambitions are looking for implementation in creative projects. An important factor is the ability to immediately see the result of your work.
 
The modern generation is changing and changing the surrounding foundations: the level of development of professional culture gives hope that the separation of collectives on the principle of male / female is a relic that becomes yesterday.
 
Do you agree with this statement? Let's talk in the comments, we are interested in your experience.
 
Perhaps among our readers or subscribers there are coder girls with their own story?
 
We are interested to know your opinion on how the trend of female coding will develop, whether something needs to be changed and, if necessary, how to do it.