“She is a woman. She can’t code” This has to be one of the biggest tech myths ever! Every year we see more women venture into the tech space, challenge the stereotype, and excel in whatever path they’ve chosen. But the gender in the tech space cannot be overlooked. Taking one of the world’s premier centers for tech as a case study, the UK records “19% of women employed in tech jobs, despite women making up 49% of the overall workforce in the country“.
But do these statistics confirm the myth that women can’t code based on their reduced numbers in the tech space?
Breaking the Myths
Women have continuously broken bounds in the tech space, though seemingly glaring, it still needs to be pointed out – You don’t need to be a man to be a programmer. Though recent stats shows men still make up the majority of programmers, this is rapidly changing. Any business of thoughtful leadership has understood the importance of gender-diverse teams. It’s not just good for equality, but a gender-diverse team make better decisions and are less likely to be biased.
Gender type is not a factor in how good of a programmer you can be. Programming is mostly about problem-solving and we need as many perspectives as possible to solve a problem in the best way.
Going Against the Stereotype
In times past, women have been recorded to being on top in influential programmer lists. Here’s a brief list for you:
- Ada Lovelace – An English mathematician and writer. She was the first programmer in the world.
You can read more of her interesting journey in tech here.
- Grace Murray Hopper – Grace Murray was a pioneer of computer programming and one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark 1 computer. She also developed the first compiler for programming language.
Learn more about her tech journey here.
- Adele Goldstine – Adele Goldstine was an American computer programmer. She wrote the manual for the first electronic digital computer, ENIAC.
You can read more about her here.
- Jean E. Sammet – Jean was an American computer scientist. She developed the FORMAC programming language in 1962. She was also one of the developers of the influential COBOL programming language.
Read more about her story here.
- Marissa Mayer – Marissa Mayer is an information technology executive. She was one of the earliest programmers in Google.
Read more about her tech journey here.
In conclusion, your gender is not what makes you a good coder or programmer. Far from it!
You can become whoever you want to be, once you set your mind to achieve it!
I Am a Woman. I Can Code. 😎