IN THE REAL WORLD Women Working for Google Google was founded in 1998 It creates Internet-related services and products It is one of the most influential tech companies in the world Google has come a long way in just a few decades Yet even at Google there is a large gap between men and women In 2014 only 17 percent of Google’s technical staff was female Google and other major tech companies are taking steps to hire more female employees out a specific task A computer program is a long list of code Web browsers apps and video games are examples of programs Programs are often made up of thousands of lines of code They are also known as software Code can be written in many different programming languages Each language has its own special format and style The people who use these languages are known as programmers or coders Teams of coders work together to build programs Coders give computers instructions they 6
Coders usually write programs on desktop or laptop computers can understand These people also fix the code when errors occur Personal computers would not exist without code The same is true of the Internet and video games Coding has improved our daily lives It helps bring us information and entertainment faster than ever It has changed the way the world works 7
Stanford University University of California Berkeley Percentage of Computer Science Majors Who Are Female 2008 2009 2010 Year 2011 2012 2013 Changes in Computer Science At Stanford University and the University of California Berkeley the number of women majoring in computer science has gone up These graphs show the percentage of female computer science majors in the years shown What do these numbers say about the future of women in computer science Women and Coding Women have made a major impact in the history of programming But their numbers are relatively low Women make up only a small percentage of coders In 2013 about half the workers in the United States were women But they held only 20 3 percent of coding
jobs The need for coders is growing fast Companies are hiring many of them each year Larger numbers of women are now entering the field Computer science is a rewarding career Every day coders use creativity and clever thinking to solve problems Their programs may be used by millions of people around the world Computer science also pays well Many coders earn more than 80,000 per year This is well above the national average among all jobs Women have accomplished great things in computer science They know what interesting and exciting work it can be Many of these women want to share their experiences with girls who are deciding what their future careers will be In Demand Coding jobs are on the rise It looks as if more openings are coming The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that the United States will have 1 million unfilled programming jobs by 2020 Many new programmers will be needed to fill these positions 9
