In 1946, six brilliant women made history by programming the first electronic computer, the Eniac. Their work had been key. They built a system that could perform a set of complicated mathematical operations in seconds, quite a feat for computing at that time. The project was led by the American Army and aimed to calculate ballistic trajectories. But when the Eniac was released to the press, their work was not recognized. Today, however, these six women are a source of inspiration in a sector, that of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), which still needs to take giant steps to close the gender gap.
Because in a world where technological advances are going at the speed of light, female inclusion is going backwards. Initiatives to empower women in this field are essential. In Europe, for example, 82.3% of people employed in 2019 as ICT specialists were men. The figure is 4.2 percentage points higher than in 2009, according to Eurostat data. In countries like Hungary and Malta 89% of the experts were men. In the rest of the countries in the area, on average, only 2 out of 10 specialists were women. “The gender gap in the technology sector is greater than in other industries,” Economy Minister Nadia Calviño said last year during the presentation of the White Paper on Women in Technology.
In Spain, the gender gap causes a loss of wealth equivalent to 15% of gross domestic product (GDP), according to a recent report by the consulting firm AT Kearney. While the number of female specialists was 22.3% in 2009, a decade later it fell to 17.1%, according to Eurostat data. “The gender gap in technology begins at school and continues at all stages of the lives of girls and women,” explains Sheridan Ash, director of technology and investment at PwC. “There is a shortage of training,” add Samsung experts. Based on a recent survey of university students in the UK, Ash explains that only 22% of respondents were able to name a famous woman who works in technology. While two thirds named a famous man in the sector.
“Women are not considering technology careers, as they are not given enough information about what it means to work in the sector,” says Ash. In addition, the lack of female models also reinforces the perception that a technological career is not for them, he adds. In the computing faculties of Spain, the presence of women is still minimal. In the 2018-2019 academic year, of the 49,860 students enrolled in Computer Science at Spanish universities, only 13% were women, according to figures from the Ministry of Education.
“The gender gap in the technology sector is a global and very worrying problem because it represents an invaluable loss of value derived from the diversity of talent,” says Verónica Pascual, CEO of Asti Mobile Robotics and president of the Asti Foundation. “To analyze the causes of this problem, we need a longitudinal and three-phase view: from primary education to university, the first years of women’s professional careers and senior management,” she completes.
Aim of Developers: reduce the gap
Given this dramatic reality, Samsung has created the Samsung Developers initiative to alleviate the shortage of women in the field of STEM professions (which encompasses careers related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
In 2019, Samsung launched the second edition of the program, which consists of a free programming course for women that offers training in technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and web programming. “The objective is to improve their preparation and favor their access to the labor market”, highlight the experts of the technology firm. “The success of the previous program, in 2018, made us launch a new call, with more content and including different training levels,” they comment.
To do this, they have relied on Bejob, an expert training company from the Santillana Group. Thus, Samsung DesArrolladoras has made it possible for more than 1,000 women to train for free, without the need for prior programming knowledge. Like Marga Ceria, a student in the last year of Samsung DesArrolladoras, who was looking to turn her professional career around. “I know it’s a challenge at my age (43 years),” he says. “But the Samsung course has been a good opportunity to introduce me in the field of artificial intelligence. A long time ago I was attracted to and very curious, ”he says. What was not expected was the universe that opened its eyes earlier. “It has impressed me and I certainly want to actively belong to it above any web development, I want to learn how to make predictive models,” she highlights.
Among the students who have already participated in the program, 76% decided to enroll to improve their curriculum, while 22% did so with prospects of employability, either to start their career in the technology sector or to refocus his professional career. 2% of the students, meanwhile, did so with the intention of undertaking at the end of the training.
According to Samsung, the idea is to continue developing new editions of the program. In fact, by September 2020 it will launch a new call. Elena Aznar (32 years old), the Samsung DesArrolladoras course has allowed her to acquire new skills and incorporate them into her profession: digital marketing and product development. Today, he is looking for a job and he knows that his acquired knowledge about programming, artificial intelligence and big data is a plus. “All the job interviews I have been asked about the course and they find it curious that it has these two aspects, but now they are looking for multidisciplinary profiles,” she adds.
“It is crucial to create these kinds of initiatives, which promote the culture of STEM learning in women so that they are prepared and carry out these jobs,” says Mariola García, director of Bejob.
How is the course?
The call for 2020 will open in September. At the moment, it will be necessary to pay attention to the social networks of @ SamsungEspaña. In 2019, the selection of the participants was made by Samsung through a nationwide communication campaign, where a total of 1,000 women registered for free, in a first phase. To access the second phase, a selection of the best ones was made based on the grades and progress during the course so that finally 696 girls became part of this level. 300 women passed to the third phase based on their grades in the previous level. Finally, for the fourth module, a final selection was made of the 40 most outstanding students for training in artificial intelligence (AI) and big data.
The complete training itinerary combined the online and face-to-face format. It started with a 50-hour online course in which the students acquired basic knowledge of Web Development. After passing this level, they continued with a 100-hour online phase in which the participants were provided with the necessary knowledge to build web applications using standards such as HTML5 or CSS3. In the third level, 150 hours long in a tutored online format, they learned to carry out Full Stack developments with JavaScript. Finally, and after passing the previous three levels, the girls became experts in artificial intelligence and big data in the online and face-to-face training that was given for a duration of 450 hours.
On January 13, 2020, the first of the two face-to-face courses that took place in this fourth phase of the program began and which lasted until mid-April. In that first part, the 40 students with the best results were divided into two groups. The first of these groups consisted of the 450-hour face-to-face course, which explored, among other topics, the foundations of artificial intelligence, Natural Language processing, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, as well as the programming languages necessary in the artificial intelligence environment. In addition, in the big data module they received training in data analysis, management and storage, and acquired programming knowledge in big data and Business Intelligence. The second group of this classroom course began on March 16 and ended at the end of June. Once completed and passed, the students obtained an academic certification from Samsung and the General Foundation of the University of Alcalá (FGUA).
In September, a new call will be opened from Samsung DesArrolladoras to continue helping to reduce the existing gender gap in the field of STEM professions.
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