Lesley Chilcott's New Documentary CODEGIRL Takes on Technology's Gender Gap CNNMoney
go to original November 4, 2015

CODEGIRL Official Trailer (CODE GIRL)

As the expression goes, ”You can’t be what you can’t see.” When it comes to getting girls into coding, this means they need more role models in tech.

A new documentary called CODEGIRL is doing just that. From Academy Award-winning producer Lesley Chilcott, the film aims to rewrite the narrative that coding is a man’s job. It follows the journey of a global mobile app competition for high school girls called Technovation.

It’s a real contest — put on by a nonprofit called Iridescent — that has had over 5,000 girls in 30 countries participate since 2010.

The three-month contest tasks girls with solving real-world issues in their communities. Girls (who range in age from 10 to 18) team up in groups of three to five. They’re paired with a local tech mentor to fulfill Technovation’s curriculum, which includes creating a business plan, learning to code, and developing a mobile app.

The problems they solve are, of course, relative to what they know. The issues they tackle in the film range from drunk driving in Massachusetts to improper waste disposal in Nigeria to violence against women in Mexico. The winning team receives $10,000 to bring their app to market.

The film opened in select theaters on Sunday but thanks to a partnership with Google’s Made With Code initiative, you can view it for free on YouTube through Thursday.

Read the rest at KNBR.com

Related: Meet The Girls Solving the World's Problems in CODEGIRL (Forbes)

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