Why Girls Need To Learn To Code

A few months ago gender inequality came into the public spotlight, after the White House released the Fact Sheet, dedicated to the twentieth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, which listed previous accomplishments and steps Obama’s administration is going to take to fight gender inequality and the wage gap. An mportant part of the Fact Sheet was talking about Women’s Economic Empowerment and support of entrepreneurship.

Millennials and Generation Z are known to be very open towards entrepreneurship, and this trend has made us overcome the consequences of the 2008 economic crisis in the fastest way possible. With this in mind, it is easy to see why Obama’s administration thinks that the economic empowerment of women through entrepreneurship is so crucial for fighting gender inequality, in the United States and everywhere around the world.

Since most successful millennial startups are mainly from the IT niche, it is easy to conclude that the computer is the 21st century’s “steam engine” and that women’s rights and economic stability lie in long code strings written in Java, Python, C, PHP, Ruby and Swift.

Why Is Coding So Important?

Steve Jobs once said that everyone in this country should learn how to program a computer, because it will teach them how to think. Currently, software is eating the world and taking over numerous jobs that were irreplaceable just several decades ago. Learning how to code is like learning how to live life in the 21st century and it is the way to increase your competitive edge for the future job market.

What Language to Learn

Programming languages are constantly changing, as well as their popularity. That’s why it is very important to start learning languages whose popularity will grow in the future. These are some of our pics:

  • Python – an old programming language, praised by its fans for its readability and easy learning;
  • Ruby – with its add-on framework called Rails it is used for building web apps. Like Python it is easy to use, implement and learn;
  • Java – One of the most popular programming languages in the world, necessary for Android app development;
  • PHP – the programming language that’s currently powering one third of the web including the WordPress website platform;
  • C – the oldest and one of the most popular programming languages, written in 1970.
  • Swift – a language developed by Apple meant for creating iPhone apps (Objective-C is another great program that can be used for this purpose).

Where to Learn It?

There are plenty of free and subscription based IT courses out there. The first step for every coding beginner should be finding more info on the best and most effective courses online. In addition to these, beginners can also use Ivy League or some other university websites to listen to lectures from some of the most respected industry experts who teach at MIT, Harvard, Stanford, and many other respected American universities that share some of their lectures online.

Tutorials Point is another interesting website that provides its visitors with the biggest number of free tutorials available online. These can also be used as a great addition to online courses. For more practical knowledge, there is a website called Code Academy that solely sticks to practice, and gives its visitors a string of tasks that they need to solve, that will help them practice all the knowledge they have acquired through online courses and university lectures.

How to Use It?

Advanced knowledge of coding can be easily used on today’s job market. Experienced developers in the United States can earn more than $100,000 per year. Another way for using your knowledge of coding is by developing your own apps and other software and becoming an entrepreneur. This is great for developers who want to act as their own boss and depend solely on their work. This was also the first step of many software millionaire’s careers, including Meg Whitman, Marissa Meyer, Susan Wojcicki and Sheryl Sandberg.

Fighting against prejudices and gender inequality is the number one priority for all of us, and although recent statements from Obama’s administration sounds optimistic, the only real way to crush the wage gap and gender inequality is by equipping yourself with skills that enable you to make the change yourself.

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Categorized as Tech