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New initiative wants more girls in ICT
Posted: March 17, 2011
The prejudices, myths and stereotypes are many when it comes to women and the ICT industry. The fact is that despite the major focus it is still difficult to attract girls to educations in ICT. Microsoft's initiative Digigirlz wants to change that.
The 5th and 6th of March a group of ICT interested girls met at Microsoft in Hellerup. They had decided to investigate whether a future in the ICT industry would be something for them. The idea was to network, have an informal chat with female employees at Microsoft about how it is being a woman in the ICT industry, and not least play with software coding.
- Digigirlz is an opportunity to hear about women in the ICT industry and gain insight in the tasks they perform. We get a taste of how life is at Microsoft and it is fun to try programming in Small Basic. With the project we have found out that we want to be programmers, says Clara and Layal, 2.G. from Niels Brock IT College.
To few girls is the reason behind Microsoft’s initiative. They would like to see more female candidates in the future:
- Many women opt out of a career in the ICT industry because they think it is just for geeks. Unfortunately they miss out on the opportunity for some of the most amazing jobs in an industry that is constantly changing. In our industry you can really make a difference for many people. We hope that Digigirlz will inspire young girls to consider a career in the ICT industry by becoming acquainted with different job possibilities. They have met female role models who have already made a career in ICT and think it's fun, says Nana Dent, Division Manager, Microsoft Denmark.
Source: Microsoft Denmark
