Code: Debugging the Gender Gap

While girls and boys perform equally well in math and science through middle school, they stop excelling in these subjects by high school, according to CODE: DEBUGGING THE GENDER GAP. The film highlights why this phenomenon urgently needs to be addressed in the face of the tech revolution's influence on the present and future job market. At the time the film was made, only 15 percent of Facebook coders were women. This leaves the wisdom and influence of half the population out of the creation of apps, programs, and other tech products we all use. The problem is partly supply. The film states that only ten percent of U.S. high schools offer computer science courses, and boys tend to take those courses when they're offered. This led one woman to create an app called Kodable, designed to teach kids to code at an early age. The few women who do get the necessary training face bias in largely male-dominated software engineering workplaces. One woman at Github went public about sexual harassment at her office and she was trolled on the internet by colleagues who tried to ruin her reputation. One even threatened her with rape. But the toughest barrier may be cultural bias against women in science in math, which starts with the way we talk to young girls about their roles in the world. Director Robin Hauser Reynolds interviews a wide-ranging group of women, men, and girls about the problem and possible solutions.