IT巨頭聯手推出編程女生計劃打造"理科女"
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。現在，一名國會候選人試圖在紐約開設暑期培訓課程改變這一現狀。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.
一個名爲"編程女生"的新組織將在七月份爲20個高中年紀的女孩子開設八個星期的課程，在這個課程中，這些女孩子將會學會怎麼建立網站和移動應用，甚至開設自己的公司。課程中也包含財務知識、計算機科學和機器人技術。該組織表示已經得到了一些公司的經濟援助，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."
"女性就要落在後面了。"薩賈尼說。"技術是造成收入不平衡的潛在力量，爲此我們要做點什麼才行。"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.
"女性在哪裏？"的呼喊聲從華爾街蔓延到政壇甚至更遠，但技術領域的女性缺乏問題尤其嚴重。對於人才的高要求阻礙了女性的發展，這一點比過去的性別障礙、種族、階級障礙等都要更爲嚴重。儘管很多獎項的目的在於鼓勵科技界的女性，但根據國家女性和信息技術中心的資料顯示，2009年工程學士學位和計算機和信息科學學士學位的女性獲得者還不到總人數的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於吸引更多女性進入技術領域，而吸引的關鍵是讓女性在小時候就對科學、工程和計算機產生興趣，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工作，使她們在科技領域受到歡迎，就必須想辦法增加學習工程技術的女性數量——就這麼簡單。"推特的工程師薩拉·海德週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.
編程女生創始人是知名的薩賈尼，她曾是對衝基金代理人和希拉里的前任選舉活動籌款人。薩賈尼當時在希拉里的選舉時掀起過高潮，得到了科技界和華爾街傑出人物的支持，比如當時摩根史坦利投資公司的董事長約翰·馬克和推特的聯合創始人傑克·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"的執行董事克里斯汀·提圖斯表示他們着重於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，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%公立學校的學生無法在學校使用計算機。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.
除了這八週的課程，"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家一起學習。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。
