The underrepresentation of women in the tech world has been well documented. What if the answer could be found in education?
It's a question that seems to have some of the Silicon Valley giants thinking. This week, Samsung announced an initiative with the US non-profit organization Girls Who Code (GWC), which will see the launch of a mobile app development competition, the "Samsung Mobile App Challenge."
The challenge will allow GWC members -- girls in grades 6-12 -- to work together on designing and coding a mobile app that addresses a need in their school or community.
The company is also working with experts in the field of coding to deploy a challenge-based curriculum for GWC participants, designed to spur excitement and interest amongst female participants in this field.
"Samsung wants to level the playing field and provide more opportunities for women to increase technology skills and better prepare them for a career in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math)," said Gregory Lee, President and CEO of Samsung Telecommunications America and Samsung Electronics North America Headquarters.
Samsung isn't alone -- earlier this year Google launched "Made with Code", an initiative targeted at young girls which aims to inspire them to take an interest in computer science. Activities have included the chance to design a limited edition 3D-printed bracelet in partnership with Shapeways and designing an animation made from a loop of four GIFs.
The initiative was created in an attempt to rectify the fact that, according to Google, only 1 per cent of American girls express an interest in pursuing a career in computer science. Yet it looks like that is set to change as girls set about rewriting the code.
