Why I chose to focus on helping women, trans and nonbinary people get into coding?

Women, trans, and nonbinary people (women+) are underrepresented in the tech industry, but we have been working to change that. And I’d like to believe that my team and I have made a dent in the disparity since the inception of CodeOp. Fortunately, our former students think so, too.

Okay, okay, let’s come back to the topic: why does CodeOp exist?

Despite progress in recent years, women, trans and non-binary people (women+) are still vastly underrepresented in the tech industry, particularly in coding and other technical roles like data engineers and machine learning engineers.

Through this article, I’ll share my reasons for starting CodeOp and highlight the issues plaguing gender representation in the tech industry.

Important Context: While the lack of gender representation is a broader issue that concerns women, trans, and non-binary people, reliable data on this issue is available from studies that focus on ‘women’ only.

As such, any data presented in this article highlights how much more work is yet to be done to represent trans and nonbinary identities in tech.

The gender gap in the tech industry

The gender gap in tech is well-documented, with women making up only a small percentage of the industry’s workforce.

According to TechNation, as of 2023, only 26% of people in the UK technology industry are women, while 50% of workers in the labour market are women.

Notably, the proportion falls even further if we only look at women in technical roles (such as developers and data engineers) within the tech industry. This lack of diversity limits opportunities for women+ and hinders innovation and progress in the field.

Why is this happening, you ask? Aren’t all major companies trying to be “woke” and gender-inclusive?

Well, yes. But there’s an underlying issue creating this gender gap, which occurs years before the first day on the job. If you’re looking for online graduate jobs in tech, you’ll find that most of them will require a STEM degree or some entry-level software jobs.

However, as the Technation report shows, only 19% of CS, engineering and technology students are women as of January 2023 in the UK.

In 2019, while 35% of boys took two or more STEM subjects at A-Level, only 22% of girls took two or more STEM A-Levels.

Furthermore, boys study A-Level subjects (like engineering and technology) that traditionally lead to a degree in computer science at a significantly higher rate than girls. 20.6% of boys studied Physics vs 4.9% of girls and 6.9% of boys studied Computer Science vs 0.9% of girls.

Similar gender gap statistics make us pause even when we look at places around the world where we hope to find better news. The gender gap for STEM is 35% in the US, 17% in the European Union, 16% in Japan, and 14% in India.

According to Forbes (June 2024), women merely make up 25% of the tech workspace – a meagre number that falls further down to only 11% of women in executive roles.

This lack of diversity limits opportunities for women and hinders innovation and progress in the field.

The womentech network team keeps an array of noteworthy stats if you want to deep dive into this gender disparity.

Challenges women+ face in pursuing careers in coding

Despite many contributions, women+ face several challenges in pursuing careers in coding, including gender bias, lack of representation and mentorship, and a lack of access to resources and opportunities.

These challenges can make it difficult for anyone to break into the industry and succeed once they do.

The Women in Tech survey 2023 shows that 22% view the early misconception of the industry, from a lack of education in young girls, as the reason behind the under-representation in STEM workspace.

These misconceptions arise from prevailing myths that tech careers are only for individuals with strong mathematical or technical skills and that women cannot balance family and personal life with a tech career.

Women are often stereotyped as being less skilled or less interested in tech-related fields, which can lead to discrimination and exclusion. Moreover, the lack of representation and mentorship for women in coding can make it difficult for them to find role models and support networks. For example, according to a survey by PwC, only 22% of students could name a famous woman working in technology. Whereas 66% can name a famous man working in technology.

Women+ students often put off a career in technology as it’s too male-dominated. Issues of gender disparity can be especially complex and challenging for women of colour, disabled and neurodiverse women and those who identify as lesbian, bisexual, transgender or queer.

Remember the stats from the women tech network that I mentioned earlier? According to the page, the gender wage gap between men and women is $0.95 for every dollar. But it goes further for women of colour: only $0.91 for every dollar. I know it doesn’t seem this big with these smaller numbers, but that’s a 10% pay cut.

Women tech network also states that for every 100 men promoted to manager, only 87 women and 82 women of colour get the same promotion. And we don’t even have enough data for trans and nonbinary people.

Finally, a lack of access to resources and opportunities, such as coding classes and internships, can make it difficult for women+ to gain the skills and experience they need to succeed in the industry.

Benefits of gender diversity in the tech industry

First and foremost, actively supporting and developing a diverse workplace is an ethical responsibility for every organisation.

Providing equitable opportunities to people from diverse backgrounds, including women+, creates a long-supporting workplace policy that is inclusive and nurturing over time, contributing to leadership that truly represents society within the organisation.

It is also important to the ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) framework. Regulators want to see measurement against key reporting requirements, such as gender pay gap reporting.

As such, tech organisations must prioritise and take tangible action towards improving the representation of women+ to deliver on their commitments.

Secondly, addressing this skewed gender representation is an economic necessity as much as it’s about what’s right.

For example, by 2027, McKinsey’s analysis indicates a shortage of technical talent for EU 27 countries in the range of 1.4 million to 3.9 million people. Europe could close this talent gap and benefit from a GDP increase of 260 billion and 600 billion if it doubled its proportion of women in the IT industry to about 45% by 2027 or an estimated 3.9 million additional women workers.

In fact, looking at the current state of under-representation across different roles, the ones which could benefit the most from closing down the gender gap are also the ones which hold the most promise in the tech industry, such as DevOps (combination of software development (dev) and operations (ops)) and cloud infrastructure.

When people from different backgrounds and perspectives come together to solve problems, they bring unique ideas and approaches. This can lead to more creative solutions and better products.

Additionally, a diverse workforce can better serve a diverse customer base, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty. By empowering women+ to pursue careers in coding, we are not only addressing the gender gap but also promoting DE&I in the tech industry.

Studies on workplace diversity have shown that diverse teams are more innovative and productive than homogenous ones. When women+ are included in the tech industry, they bring a different perspective and set of experiences that can lead to more creative problem-solving.

Additionally, having more women+ in leadership positions can help create a more inclusive and welcoming workplace culture, leading to higher employee satisfaction and retention.

Initial lack of community and support for women in coding

Women+ in coding often face unique challenges and barriers, such as imposter syndrome and lack of representation.

According to a study by KPMG, an estimated 75% of women executives across industries have faced imposter syndrome in their careers. That’s why providing a supportive community for women in tech is crucial.

By connecting with other women in coding, we can find mentors, role models, and allies to help them navigate the industry.

Additionally, community events and resources can provide opportunities for meeting prospective employers and fellow learners, keeping up-to-date with new developments in the industry, and skill-building.

A supportive community is particularly helpful for women+ in the tech industry as they face specific challenges based on their gender. Such a community can provide them with a safe place to seek support and benefit from the experiences of other women+

Today, several communities for women and by women support women in their theme to build a career in the tech industry. Some of these are Women Who Code, where you become a member of the global community and get access to coding resources, scholarships, a job board, and much more.

There is also Girls in Tech, a global non-profit focused on the engagement, education and empowerment of girls and women passionate about technology, with more than 100,000 members globally.

Why did I make the decision to launch CodeOp?

After experiencing all of this firsthand while studying and working as a data scientist in a male-dominated field, I decided to launch CodeOp after feeling disenchanted by her experience.

My personal experience of a non-linear career – from being immersed in the field of Cultural Anthropology to being a student again at 30 pursuing Data Science – played an important role in bringing this idea to life.

Here’s a snippet from the interesting story of what led me to start CodeOp:

‘‘The last time I counted all-women coding schools on SwitchUp, I calculated that they make up less than 1% of all in-person coding bootcamps worldwide, and yet, the gender disparity in tech is a chronic worldwide issue.

If we’re serious about getting more women, trans and gender non-conforming individuals into tech, serious about shaping a world that reflects the real circumstances of the people around us and moves towards something better and more equitable than what exists currently, we need to create practical solutions in which men, women, transgender, non-binary individuals and businesses and governments come together to focus their efforts on supporting those on the margins of tech.

Investing in and supporting these areas is the starting point for the overdue revolution we need to transform this space.’’

I recognised the lack of a cohesive bootcamp that provides women+ students with the education and the skills to find job opportunities in the tech industry and crack tech job interviews.

We at CodeOp do this by providing practical workshops during the bootcamp and a long-term community of like-minded women+ in tech.

The impact of greater representation of women+ in tech cannot be overstated. Women bring unique perspectives and ideas to the industry, and their contributions have led to some of the most innovative and groundbreaking technologies.

By empowering more women+ to pursue tech jobs and create successful careers in the tech industry, the positive impact of women+ in the world of technology will just keep growing! The importance of women+ in tech roles cannot be understated.

After all, if it weren’t for women such as Ada Lovelace, the renowned English mathematician, writer and visionary, we wouldn’t even be talking about the vast world brought about by computers in the first place!

Who are the women in coding history?

Since most of us don’t give enough flowers to women+ community in STEM, let’s end the article on a rather positive note.

Some notable women in coding history include

• Ada Lovelace, who is considered the world’s first computer programmer,
• Grace Hopper, who developed the first compiler for a computer programming language and found the first-ever “bug” in programming; and
• Jean Jennings Bartik, who was one of the first programmers of the ENIAC computer.

Other important women in coding history include Katherine Johnson, who worked on NASA’s early space missions, and Margaret Hamilton, who developed software for the Apollo space program.

Today, there are countless success stories of women in tech, from C-suite executives of major tech companies such as Sheryl Sandberg (former COO of Meta), Anjali Sud (CEO of Vimeo) and Rachana Kumar (CTO of Etsy) to founders of successful startups such as Whitney Wolfe Herd (Bumble), Julia Collins (Zume Pizza) and Tania Boler Founder (Elvie).