#GirlsWhoCode is the hashtag of Girls Who Code (GWC), an international nonprofit organization that aims to support and increase the number of women in computer science. The organization is based in New York and runs after-school clubs, a summer program, a college club and a book series. Its name doubles as its hashtag, which the organization and its campaign partners use alongside dedicated campaign tags.
Origin
Wikipedia reports that Reshma Saujani founded Girls Who Code in 2012 and came up with the idea during her run for the United States Congress. According to the same article, her inspiration came from finding that schools along her campaign route lacked female representation in computer science classrooms. Saujani’s own Wikipedia biography notes that she was listed in Fortune’s 40 Under 40 in 2015 and that she wrote Girls Who Code: Learn to Code and Change the World, published by Viking in August 2017. She is also the founder and CEO of Moms First, an initiative founded in 2021 as the “Marshall Plan for Moms.” Tarika Barrett is now CEO of Girls Who Code.
The organization’s About Us page states its mission as closing “the gender gap in tech.” The page says that 37% of computer scientists were women in 1995 and only 24% today, and that the biggest drop-off of girls in computer science happens between the ages of 13 and 17.
How It’s Used
The hashtag works as the organization’s brand tag. Girls Who Code has also launched separate campaign hashtags with partners:
- #raiseyourhand (2018): a TikTok partnership in which the app pledged US$1 for every video posted with the hashtag, up to $10,000.
- #MakeSpaceForWomen (2020): for a Super Bowl commercial with Olay, which donated $1 to Girls Who Code each time the tag was used on Twitter.
- #MarchforSisterhood: a digital march in which participants posted a photo or video saying what they march for.
The programs behind the tag, as Wikipedia describes them, are after-school clubs for middle and high school girls aged 13 to 18, built on four foundational concepts the organization calls the “core-four”: loops, conditionals, variables and functions. There is also the Summer Immersion Program, originally a seven-week in-person camp for tenth- and eleventh-graders. In 2020 Girls Who Code also released the “Missing Code” campaign, a series of videos showing apps glitching when code written by women is removed. Related conversations run under #WomenInTech and #STEM.
Timeline of Girls Who Code
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2012 | Reshma Saujani founds Girls Who Code |
| 2014 | More than 1,500 clubs across America; AT&T contributes $1 million in August |
| 2016 | Expansion to all 50 states announced |
| August 2017 | A series of 13 books launches |
| Spring 2018 | Programs have reached more than 50,000 girls |
| October 11, 2018 | #raiseyourhand partnership with TikTok |
| November 2018 | Expansion to Canada, the first outside the US |
| 2019 | Plans announced to grow to 10,000 clubs in all 50 states |
| 2020 | Free two-week virtual Summer Immersion Program serves 5,000 girls in its first year; Super Bowl ad with Olay |
| March 2021 | Clubs and programs have reached more than 300,000 girls globally |
| December 2021 | DojaCode, an interactive music video made with Doja Cat and Active Theory |
| August 2022 | Programs in India reported |
Dates and figures come from Wikipedia.
Recent Developments
Book bans. Wikipedia reports that in 2020-2021 four titles from the Girls Who Code book series were banned from the Central York school district in Pennsylvania. The titles were listed on PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans for a ten-month period from November 2020 to September 2021. See also #BannedBooksWeek.
Current reach. On its About Us page the organization says it has served 860,000 girls, women and nonbinary individuals and has 425,000 college-aged or post-college-aged alumni. It also says it is on track to close the gender gap in new entry-level tech jobs by 2030. These are the organization’s own figures.