As women in the computer science field still face scrutiny and are discouraged by things like the controversial memo leaked by a Google employee last summer, IBM, a leader for over 100 years in progressive thinking, stands up to celebrate the women of tech.
Supporting females who code has always been in our DNA, and we're on a mission to help elevate another 1 million girls who code by 2020. We want to inspire the next generation of coders and set an example in the market.
IBM developed a series called C0d3rs (Coders) with Vox Media, to celebrate young female coders and highlight our education partnerships with Girls Who Code, which was created to get young females coding, and through IBM's P-Tech program.
Girls Who Code is a national non-profit whose mission is to close that widening gender gap in computer science and to encourage girls to explore degrees and careers in computer science. Through summer immersion camps and after-school coding clubs, Girls Who Code now serves over 40,000 girls in all 50 states. By 2020, they hope to teach one million girls how to code.
P-Tech stands for Pathways in Technology Early College High Schools (P-TECH) are innovative public schools spanning grades 9 to 14 that bring together the best elements of high school, college and career. This new education model was co-developed by IBM working together with educators, policymakers and elected officials. P-TECH is designed to be both widely replicable and sustainable, as part of a national effort to reform career and technical education.
We developed a video series that celebrated three female coders who've found their home in the coding world through these initiatives, and dive deeper into their life story and what inspired them to get into coding.
Links to videos:
Synopsis: https://ibmc0d3rs.tumblr.com/
PW: IBMawards
Meet ShuDon Brown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=mxQf5FsCw3o
Meet Michelle Liang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=21LEqsOlyHY
Meet Heather Brown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=4&v=KfLzUiBIAiY
The content began November and was among our top performing assets with 100% positive social sentiment. We received millions of views across native Facebook, YouTube and IBM's DeveloperWorks site, which gives coders an opportunity to expand their knowledge of coding.
The efforts have increased the interest levels of female coders who participated in the program from 12% to remarkably 71%. We saw a 48% increase over average time spent, and 9% higher than average completion rate.
But more importantly, our program is expanding to over 80 schools next year and more empowered female coders are hitting the market to drive change in the computer science industry.