Computer science is a world where women are disproportionately represented. This leads to a gender bias in the way our technology is innovated in the workforce. Technology and computers permeate through many aspects of society and provide the foundation for most modern innovation, but according to the National Center for Women & Information Technology, women are significantly underrepresented in the creation of technology. That’s a problem.
By fostering equal opportunity in computer science, women and minorities can be proportionally represented as technical leaders, executives, founders, VCs, board members, coders, and software engineers. Although options for encouragement may seem limited, code.org intends to change things with a new course.
This new course, “AP Computer Science Principles” is specifically aimed at minorities and women in an effort to increase equality in the computer science space. And it’s working. Since 2016, minority enrollment is up 135% while female enrollment is up 170%.
The course is designed to balance the scales in the computer science field. Although the two groups still make up less than half of all computer science students, efforts like these will inevitably help increase workplace diversity.