Women are still woefully underrepresented in the digital world with fewer than 20 percent of computer science degrees in the United States being awarded to females. Even in today's progressive cultural landscape, it is still difficult to attract young women to tech fields, but Google and YouTube are trying to change that with a new film, CODEGIRL.
The film, by award-winning documentary filmmaker, Lesley Chilcott, who's other credits include An Inconvenient Truth and Waiting for Superman, follows 5,000 girls from 60 countries as they compete in a global entrepreneurship and coding competition hosted by Technovation.
Google made CODEGIRL available for free on YouTube from November 1st to 5th, 2015, in advance of the films theatre release.
In a Google Blog, Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube, said, “As someone who runs a company at the intersection of technology and media, I want to help change the perceptions of women and technology we see today.”
Will you be seeing CODEGIRL during its theatre release and what more do you think can be done to encourage girls to pursue careers in science and technology? Leave us your comments below.