The 7th edition of the Coding Girls Programme was presented this morning. Coding Girls was developed by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale to promote gender equality in science and technology and incentivize the participation of young women on the labour market. The “hybrid” collaborative alliance involves the United States Diplomatic Mission to Italy, the Embassy of the Netherlands, the Compagnia di San Paolo, Microsoft, ENI and a network of 32 academic partners. The protagonists are 15,000 young women in 24 Italian cities. Coding Girls is a scalable model that can be replicated locally and is being tested in Turin, Milan and Naples.
Ten years after the Golfo-Mosca Bill on female quotas on the boards of companies listed on the stock exchange, the representation of women has risen from 7.4 to 36.4%. Unfortunately, however, this has not had a direct impact on management (women presidents: 10.7%; women CEOs: 6.3%) or profound changes in our economic and social system. Reconciling professional and private lives is still a major issue and the quality of work for women is getting worse with the crisis. According to McKinsey, the jobs of women are 1.8 times more vulnerable during the health emergency than those held by men, a gender gap that could reduce global GDP growth by over one trillion dollars in 2030. We must reinforce the presence of women in scientific and technological sectors that are characterized by lack of skills, overcoming stereotypes and prejudice that conditions the new generations.
In order to incentivize the participation (and permanence) of women on the labour market and promote gender equality in science and technology, this morning, we presented the seventh edition of Coding Girls, a long-standing programme developed by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale and the United States Diplomatic Mission to Italy in collaboration with Microsoft. The programme is now also supported by ENI, the Compagnia di San Paolo and the Embassy of the Netherlands.
Thanks to an educational alliance amongst 100 high school classes and 32 academic partners, the programme reaches out to 15,000 young women in 24 Italian cities in all regions. The main objective is to raise the awareness of these young women on the importance of their contribution to the economic and sustainable growth of the country. The programme is not only based on training sessions and coding competitions amongst schools, but also includes orientation sessions with university tutors and motivational meetings with role models, like Agnese Pini, Vittoria Colizza and Enrica Arena, who inaugurated this morning’s press conference with their stories.
Thanks to its ability to network and evolve, year after year, the Coding Girls Programme has become a model for education, awareness raising and orientation for young women and is locally accredited and supported by a large alliance of private and public subjects. The national programme has given rise to various local declinations of the project, such as for example, the one organised by the Compagnia di San Paolo in Turin which involves 600 young women from 10 schools in a three-year programme. The aim of the latter is to evaluate the impact of the programme on skills and professional and educational courses. The analysis conducted during the first year has revealed that participants feel an improvement in their computer skills, an increased awareness of their potential for coding and a greater propension to consider a future university or professional career in STEM. In Milan, Project “Code & Frame” with ENI organises a course for 250 young women on scientific culture with a focus on technology as a key tool to address our environmental challenges. Moreover, the seventh edition of Coding Girls features a new partner, the Embassy of the Netherlands that will be working on an initiative with the City of Naples.
- Thomas Smitham, Deputy Ambassador, United States
“In the United States, innovation has always been a key factor for economic growth, but the innovation-technology equation requires specific skills. The Coding Girls Programme opens up new exciting prospects for sectors in which women have traditionally been underrepresented, providing them with a unique opportunity to look onto the future with a greater awareness and high-level expertise. All horizons can be pushed forward with commitment and creativity.”
- Dewi van de Weerd, Deputy Ambassador, Kingdom of the Netherlands
“The Netherlands are pursuing an ambitious digital strategy, an inclusive strategy that aims to bring young women into closer contact with the world of science and technology. Coding Girls allows us to exchange good practices with two subjects, in Italy and the Netherlands, that have many years of experience in this field. I am sure that the synergy between partners will be an inspiration to the students in Naples.”
- Giulia Fiore, HR Development Methodologies and Processes and Diversity & Inclusion Initiatives, ENI
“Initiatives supporting the new generations, such as Coding Girls, are part of ENI’s sustainable development commitment. ENI pursues individual and collective value, knowledge and innovation, as the route to achieve equality. Competence has no gender and embraces diversity.”
- Barbara Cominelli, COO, Marketing and Operations Director, Microsoft Italia
“In Italy, the rate of female employment is one of the lowest in Europe. In fact, only 50% of women work, against a European average of 70%. This is not just about equal opportunities and the recognition of talent, but, at such a historic and complex crossroads, it is also a crucial issue of economic growth. Greater female employment would lead to an increase in our GDP and advantages for everyone. The digital revolution, accelerated by the heath emergency, is driving growth and profoundly changing a working world that needs an increasing number of professionals with STEM competences. Therefore, we need to change the pace so that young women are free to overcome gender stereotypes and pursue academic and professional careers in the sectors that offer the greatest opportunities. Initiatives such as Coding Girls, which Microsoft has been supporting for many years, are indispensable to help young women understand that a career in science is possible and that it would be key to the country’s economic growth. Coding Girls is also connected to our training programme - Ambizione Italia #DigitalRestart – a plan of investments to support national growth through courses providing digital skills to students and professionals.”
- Francesco Profumo, President, Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo
“We support the Fondazione Mondo Digitale’s Coding Girls Programme to underline how all genders are a value for society and introducing new generations of women to scientific and technological professions may stimulate the growth of the entire economic system. The Coding Girls Programme that we began in school year 2019-20 involved 600 young women in the metropolitan city of Turin and, notwithstanding the current difficulties, has revealed an improvement in the technological and digital skills of the participants, as well as boosting their faith in their abilities. The value of this project, which will strengthen the results of the first year, is also due to the ability of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale to involve local universities and other subjects that promote STEM in studies and professions for young women. Coding Girls is a project supported by the Foundation as part of its mission to “Create Active Participation” for its cultural objective. We are firmly convinced that scientific knowledge is an essential part of any cultural experience due to its value in educating individuals to an active and aware citizenship.”
- Mirta Michilli, Co-founder Coding Girls Association and Director General, Fondazione Mondo Digitale
“We are increasingly certain that the winning strategy to accelerate the achievement of gender equality is school, as an efficient example against all forms of inequality. We help the new generations to free themselves from commonplaces and stereotypes and freely design their future through experiential and transformative courses and a constant exchange with positive models that help the young women to acquire the full awareness of their potential. We are developing an original alliance around Coding Girls that is based on a strong common vision and the certainty that we need an urgent distributed female leadership to drive the growth of the country. A true gentle and inclusive revolution.”
PRESS KIT
- Press Note
- Agenda
- Coding Girls Association
- Coding Girls Project Profile
- Universities, Regions, Cities
- CO.ME Project Profile
- Coding Girls in Turin Project Profile
- Factsheet on the Gender Divide
