There's plenty of power in coding. And now, there's a shot of Girl Power in coding as well.
After research unearthed that fewer than 20 percent of computer science degrees in the United States are earned by girls and Google's own research finding that it's difficult to get young women interested in tech spaces, the tech company is lending its support to the film Codegirl.
"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," Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube, said in a Google blog. "So, as part of our Made with Code and media perception initiatives, I'm excited that we're supporting award-winning documentary filmmaker Lesley Chilcott — of An Inconvenient Truth and Waiting for Superman fame — on her next film, Codegirl."
Google is supporting Chilcott's film by posting it on YouTube on Sunday, Nov. 1, and keeping it available as a free video to watch until Thursday, Nov. 5. The point of the free viewing is to inspire as many female students as possible to pursue careers in tech, before the film hits theaters.
The film follows the story of 5,000 girls over 60 countries, competing in a global entrepreneurship and coding competition by Technovation. Each team of girls has three months to develop an app that tries to solve a problem in their local community. The winning team gets $10,000 in funding and support to meet their goal. The film captures the heat of the competition, as the girls learn to code and pitch their ideas.
The entire Codegirl film can be watched here.
Google says those who wish to support the film can use the hashtag #rallyforcodegirl on their social media outlets.
