As the coronavirus pandemic worsened and academics across the United States were forced to be informed from home without WiFi or reliable devices, Reshma Saujani, executive director of Girls Who Code, saw an opportunity: to teach more women to code.
“More than ever, each and every woman has to be informed to code,” Saujani said at a Time100 convention on Tuesday. Girls Who Code, a nonprofit that works to close the gender gap in technology, has helped more than 300,000 women since 2012. “These are the long-term jobs and we want to make sure that no young person is left behind.”
With the closure of so many college campuses and the expansion of distance learning, Saujani and his team maintained a virtual summer program in which the most needy academics earned access points and devices at home.
The program’s 5,000 academics were encouraged to create a tool that could meet a challenge they face. Many academics have chosen to create websites for the black Lives Matter Movement’s latest efforts: one group, for example, has created a site to fight racial micro-aggression and another aimed at celebrating the grass-based hair of black girls.
On June 1, Saujani issued an acknowledgement of the intersectionalities faced by women of color in the technological space. He said the problems of wage inequality, physical care, voter suppression and police brutality are all interconnected.
There are many qualified computer science applicants who are still hired, Saujani said. It encourages other generation leaders to criticize their integration processes because “diversity is the key to innovation.” Saujani is committed to ensuring that at least 50% of its Girls Who Code students are black, Latino, or below the poverty line.
Saujani, who was the first Indian-American woman to run for Congress in 2010, suspects that Capitol lawmakers aren’t doing enough to advocate for high-speed Internet and generational literacy programs in every home, because it’s not something everyone knows. With. “We have a lot of other people in Congress who aren’t comfortable with the generation,” he said.
Although he appeals to those in force to act, Saujani is often encouraged through the next generation of students to bring about change. “You children are our leaders. So take us, tell us, save us,” he said. “I have no doubt they will.”