A
shortage of female workers in science and engineering has long posed an image problem for
Silicon Valley. Now a one-time
congressional candidate is trying to make a difference, starting with a summer training program in New York City.
缺少理工科女性是硅谷長時間以來的一個問題?,F(xiàn)在,一名國會候選人試圖在紐約開設(shè)暑期培訓(xùn)課程改變這一現(xiàn)狀。
A new organization called Girls who Codeis starting an eight-week program in July for 20 high-school-age girls, who will learn how to build websites and mobile apps and start their own companies. There will also be workshops on topics such a financial
literacy, computer science and
robotics. The group said it has financial backing from companies including Google, eBay, General Electric and Twitter.
一個名為“編程女生”的新組織將在七月份為20個高中年紀(jì)的女孩子開設(shè)八個星期的課程,在這個課程中,這些女孩子將會學(xué)會怎么建立網(wǎng)站和移動應(yīng)用,甚至開設(shè)自己的公司。課程中也包含財務(wù)知識、計算機科學(xué)和機器人技術(shù)。該組織表示已經(jīng)得到了一些公司的經(jīng)濟援助,包括谷歌、易趣、通用電氣和推特。
Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code and a former
deputy public
advocate in New York City, said the seeds for the program were planted during her unsuccessful 2010 run for U.S. Congress, when she was struck by tech inequalities.
潤絲曼·薩賈尼是“編程女生”的創(chuàng)立人,也是紐約公共宣傳的正式代理人。她說,該計劃的萌芽是在2010年,她在美國國會上競選失敗,失敗原因是科學(xué)界男女比例的不平衡。
“Women are going to be left behind,” Saujani said. “Technology has the potential to create?income inequity and we need to do something about it.”
“女性就要落在后面了。”薩賈尼說。“技術(shù)是造成收入不平衡的潛在力量,為此我們要做點什么才行?!?/span>
Cries of “where are all the women?”
reverberate from Wall Street to politics and beyond, but the
dearth of women is particularly stark in technology fields, where talent is held up as the quality that
trumps historic barriers of sex, race or class. Despite many programs aimed at encouraging women in tech fields, fewer than 20% of undergraduate degrees in engineering or computing and information sciences were awarded to women in 2009, according to the National Center for Women & Information Technology.
“女性在哪里?”的呼喊聲從華爾街蔓延到政壇甚至更遠(yuǎn),但技術(shù)領(lǐng)域的女性缺乏問題尤其嚴(yán)重。對于人才的高要求阻礙了女性的發(fā)展,這一點比過去的性別障礙、種族、階級障礙等都要更為嚴(yán)重。盡管很多獎項的目的在于鼓勵科技界的女性,但根據(jù)國家女性和信息技術(shù)中心的資料顯示,2009年工程學(xué)士學(xué)位和計算機和信息科學(xué)學(xué)士學(xué)位的女性獲得者還不到總?cè)藬?shù)的20%。
Girls Who Code and other
initiatives aimed at drawing more women to tech fields say the key is to get girls interested in science, engineering and computing when they are very young, and support them to pursue education in technology.
“編程女生”和其他方案的目的都在于吸引更多女性進(jìn)入技術(shù)領(lǐng)域,而吸引的關(guān)鍵是讓女性在小時候就對科學(xué)、工程和計算機產(chǎn)生興趣,還要支持他們接受科技教育。
“If we want there to be more women who pursue careers in engineering and computer science and feel welcome in these fields, we have to work on ways to increase the number of women studying engineering — it’s that simple,” wrote Sara Haider, a Twitter engineer, in a blog post Tuesday.
“如果要更多女性從事工程和計算機技術(shù)工作,使她們在科技領(lǐng)域受到歡迎,就必須想辦法增加學(xué)習(xí)工程技術(shù)的女性數(shù)量——就這么簡單。”推特的工程師薩拉·海德周二在她的博客這樣寫道。
Girls Who Code has the advantage of a high-profile founder, Saujani, the onetime hedge-fund
attorney and former campaign fundraiser for Hillary Clinton. Saujani drew a spotlight during her campaign, which had the backing of tech and Wall Street
luminaries such as Morgan Stanley’s then-chairman John Mack and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.
編程女生創(chuàng)始人是知名的薩賈尼,她曾是對沖基金代理人和希拉里的前任選舉活動籌款人。薩賈尼當(dāng)時在希拉里的選舉時掀起過高潮,得到了科技界和華爾街杰出人物的支持,比如當(dāng)時摩根史坦利投資公司的董事長約翰·馬克和推特的聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人杰克·多西。
Saujani and Kristen Titus, executive director of Girls Who Code, said they focused on drawing participants from less affluent families. Saujani said she went to New York City public housing developments and asked
tenants to identify girls who are excited about computers. Saujani said 70% of New York City public school students have had no access to computers in school.
薩賈尼和“編程女生”的執(zhí)行董事克里斯汀·提圖斯表示他們著重于吸引平民家庭的孩子過來參與計劃。薩賈尼說,她到過紐約的公共住宅區(qū),從居民口中打探對計算機感興趣的女孩子。薩賈尼說,紐約70%公立學(xué)校的學(xué)生無法在學(xué)校使用計算機。
In addition to the eight weeks of workshops, participants in Girls Who Code also will be paired with female mentors in engineering roles at AppNexus, an advertising technology firm in New York, and other women entrepreneurs in New York City.
除了這八周的課程,“編程女生”的參與者還會跟紐約廣告科技公司AppNexus的女性工程師和其他紐約的女企業(yè)家一起學(xué)習(xí)。
Girls Who Code said it hopes to expand the program to other cities next year.
“編程女生”表示,希望明年能把這個計劃拓展到其他城市。
滬江英語快訊:IT界一直是男人的天下,女性程序員更是少之又少。近日一些技術(shù)公司希望改變這一狀況。Twitter、GE、Google和eBay四家IT巨頭聯(lián)合宣布推出一個名叫“編程女生”(Girls Who Code)的計劃。他們希望借此能促進(jìn)更多年輕女性來學(xué)習(xí)編程成為程序員和工程師。