The Lovelace Phenomenon

 

Sarah Holt asks whether the sea change is finally coming for women in technology…
Have you heard of the Lovelace Phenomenon? Our guess is, no. If you have, then you’ve either been doing your homework or looking into a crystal ball.
The phenomena takes its name from Ada Lovelace, who became the world’s first female coder in 1842. It refers to the small, but tangible, adjustment that is finally happening in the world of tech – a gradual metamorphosis towards there being more women in the computer industry.
It’s no secret that women are a rare breed in the tech industry. Just a month ago, Google, Facebook, eBay and LinkedIn released their diversity demographics. Despite being equal opportunities employers, all these companies have tech departments that are made up of no less than 75 percent men. These figures are representative of the rest of the UK and USA.
In the next few years, though, this may change. The cogs are in motion. There’s a new wind in the air. Finally, there’s actual evidence that women are getting engaged by tech.
This year, in the UK, the number of girls getting A stars in computing GCSEs went up from 8.3 percent to 8.6 percent. This was an improvement on the grades of their male peers, of whom only 6 percent scored A stars.
On top of this, around the world, schemes designed to get women involved in tech are in their ascendancy.
Projects aimed at getting women established in tech are nothing new. Initiatives like Girl Develop and Geek Girl were established at the start of the noughties. Recently, though, big name behemoths have got onboard with the cause, getting it to go viral.
Last month, Google announced they were giving away three months free coding education to any women who wanted to learn. The Women Techmakers scheme proved so popular that the search engine giant had to temporarily suspend applications.
This comes off the back of their Made with Code project, too, which was established to foster an interest in coding among the next generation of female coders.
Around the rest of the world, smaller, lesser-known, programs are doing the same thing as Google. These include Women Who Code, Women’s Coding Collective, and Girls Who Code.
With Google onboard it’s only a matter of time before we see the new era of techstars emerging, bringing the much needed y chromosome to computing departments.