Getting girls started early in coding

WE know the importance of science to society in terms of its being at the core of societal progress with its use of human brain to invent structures and products that would help and have helped in solving myriad of human problems. A lot of things and products we take for granted today which usage helps to make life more comfortable for us as humans in the world are all thanks to the ingenuity of science. Take the example of the on-going pandemic of the coronavirus that has inflicted enormous death and deprivation on the whole world with humans almost having no antidote to its rampaging negative effect. But thanks to the exertions of science, we have come up with various vaccines to combat it and gradually we are seeing a thaw in its effect. Given the usefulness of science and its products, it is no surprise that the world in general attaches importance to it and those who are engaged in it. Scientists are honored in every society for their accomplishments and we all know the way we respect and honour all those who have won the coveted Nobel prizes in the various branches of science. In any case, science is about the use of the human brain to think out solutions to human problems and it is normally accepted that mental exertions are the highest form of exertion for humans, such that those who excel in mental exertions are treated as special in every society. With science being a recognized platform for mental exertion, it is logical that scientists would be well regarded and treated with respect.

Unfortunately, the reality has been that in this community of respected scientists, women and females in general are not well represented, giving the impression that perhaps women are not as mentally endowed as men. There is a general low representation of women in the area of human activity that has been referred to as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).  It is said that ‘women make up only 28 percent of the workforce in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), and men vastly outnumber women majoring in most STEM fields in college.’ Of course, we know that the argument that women do not have the kind of brain that could excel in STEM has been discredited as there is no provable difference in quality in the brain of a male and a female. The implication of this is that we have to look at societal reasons for this low representation of women in STEM since there is no biological reason for it. It is in this respect that sekang has identified two important factors in the continuing lack of female representation in STEM fields: gender bias and the lack of female role models, arguing that ‘women continue to experience the phenomenon of “stereotype threat,” as “the image, culture, association, and organization” of STEM fields continues to be insistently male.’ This means that if we do not want to persist in this deliberate shortchanging of the world in denying it of the full contribution of women in the fields of STEM, we must be prepared to address the gender bias at the root of the problem.

One of the very disturbing implications of the reality of low women representation in STEM fields has been the continuing decline in the number of women in STEM fields. So it is not just that we bemoan the low representation of women in these science fields, it is the case of a continuing decline in the representation of women over time, making it important to turn around this unacceptable trend. For instance, according to Girls Who Code, while 37 percent of computer scientists in the 1990s were women, today women only make up 24 percent of all computer scientists, to give a graphic presentation of the continuing disturbing decline of women participation in STEM fields. And it is said that the gender bias responsible for the continuing disparity in participation of girls and boys in science starts very early and is so pervasive that it covers the home, the school, and every organ of society given the general patriarchal orientation of the world. Fortunately, some women activists are not allowing the overbearing nature of patriarchy and the pervasiveness of the attendant gender bias to overwhelm and dissuade them from confronting the issue and coming up with workable solutions. These women activists include the female founders of Erase All Kittens (EAK), an organisation devoted to encouraging the massive participation of girls in computing and coding by exposing girls to coding when young.

The founders of EAK are convinced that  ‘because most coding education tools for children are designed by men, those tools appeal more to boys.’ These male-designed tools tend to teach ‘repetitive coding, in a very rigid, instructional way’ such that most young girls, as a result of their experience with these male-designed tools, display a general lack of interest in coding, which further sustains the disparity and the low representation of females in STEM-related careers. And this is why the founders of EAK have created a web-based game with the aim of teaching girls how to code, different from the existing male-designed tools. The EAK web-based game is revolutionizing the approach to coding for girls as it is designed differently than the educational tools that most young girls and boys are used to now. As far as the founders of EAK are concerned, ‘to better diversify coding for girls and beyond, coding needs to be perceived as less of a maths-like subject, and more as a language that develops other practical skills. Coding is a fun challenge that breaks larger problems into small manageable tasks, relying on logic, imagination and communication to come up with innovative solutions. Here we get to know that it would not just be enough to say that we want to encourage girls to go into science and computing and coding through simple exposure, without going ahead to confront other fundamental issues associated with the existing gender bias.

This is why researches have shown that we would need campaigns, educational tools and such others that appeal to girls if we are not to perpetuate their lack of participation in STEM fields. The EAK web-based game has this in mind as it is designed in such a way that girls would genuinely love it – ‘(because it is) one that places a huge emphasis on creativity. Girls can see instant results as they code, there are different ways to progress through the game and learning is seamlessly blended with storytelling.’ It is said that almost 95 percent of girls want to learn more about coding after playing the game to buttress its effectiveness in helping to cultivate the interests of girls in coding. We commend this initiative by EAK as we look forward to its continuing attraction of young girls to coding. By focusing on not only exposing young girls to coding programmes, but capturing and retaining their interest, this initiative represents a workable platform and example that could be explored in further getting girls into the STEM fields and thereby see them participating more fully in the fields.

• Yakubu is of the Department of Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan.

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