Traditionally under-represented in high-tech circles, women in Victoria will soon have a new tool to break into the game.
Victoria’s Ladies Learning Code launches Saturday, joining 17 other chapters across the country to offer “beginner-friendly tech education” for women and children.
“This exists to facilitate women getting involved in tech, but it’s digital literacy for everyone,” said Erin Athene, head of the Victoria group. “Right now, depending on whose statistics you look at, only seven to 15 per cent of the people working in technology are women — that’s such a small minority.”
Athene said the Ladies Learning Code method of instruction — monthly sessions that break down the basics of programming over a single, six-hour seminar — are more social and collaborative and are designed to appeal to women.
There’s little doubt it appeals. The first seminar, which allows for 50 students, is sold out and there’s a 35-person waiting list.
“I was really surprised because there are a lot of great courses around, and a lot of online courses, but doing it in person lends itself well to learning,” Athene said.
The first $50 course is an introduction to programming languages HTML (hypertext markup language, which is the content of a webpage) and CSS (cascading style sheets, the language which determines how the content is displayed).
Athene said a broad range of people signed up.
“The typical student tends to be someone in the marketing or creative side of tech companies or businesses that work with tech,” she said. “They aren’t going to be developers, but they need to understand more.”
There’s no debate over whether men outnumber women in the technology sector. The debate is more about why that’s the case, and what part an educational tool such as Ladies Learning Code could play.
In earlier interviews with the Times Colonist, Victoria technology executives offered their opinions on why women are still out-numbered in the field.
Ashley Roulston, chief operating officer of Industrial Plankton, said she is now used to being one of the few women in the room, but suggests the problem may not be the training and education women receive, but their own ambition.
“The opportunities are there — they just need to want it,” she said, adding several resources are available for women who want to work in the sector. “I’d say change has been slow and steady.”
Shelley Zapp, chief executive at Unit4 Business Software North America, said she has never felt held back or restricted. While there may be more women working in tech now than 10 years ago, there are few women in senior positions, she said. For that, however, women, themselves, may be to blame.
“Until I’m proven wrong, I believe there’s no gender bias or restrictions placed on women, but some may not go for it,” she said. “I don’t want to sound critical, but women can be their own restriction … they don’t go after it as much.”
Corina Ludwig, president of Function Fox Systems, said while the gap between men and women when it comes to getting ahead in technology is narrowing, it does remain.
“The shift is definitely there and it’s catching up, but it’s not there yet,” she said. “I still think if you look at women in technology and put a male in the same position, you still see that the male tends to get paid more. That’s still the case and that’s across the board.”
The Victoria launch of the non-profit Ladies Learning Code is being held in conjunction with a Canada-wide initiative designed to promote technology education.
On Saturday, National Learn to Code Day, more than 750 adult learners will attend simultaneous workshops with 200 expert developer volunteers across the country while hundreds tune in online.
After the launch, the Victoria chapter will offer one seminar each month at Fort Tectoria, home of the Victoria Advanced Technology Council.
