Can coding go beyond the interaction of simply programming on the computer? For example, what role can empathy play in coding. Fortune takes a look at this in a recent article titled “Why This Coding Bootcamp Is Teaching Empathy.”
Rebecca Grant of Fortune writes, “The explosion of coding bootcamps has made it easier than ever for women to break into the tech industry. Now, one such program has a plan to help keep them there. Women represent around 20% of engineering graduates, but just 11% of practicing software engineers, according to the Center for the Study of the Workplace.Of the women who persevere through academic and social obstacles and secure developer jobs at tech companies, 56% leave those companies within a decade, citing hostility and isolation in the workplace as their primary motivation for quitting. Dev Bootcamp created the Engineering Empathy program in an effort to slow—and hopefully eventually halt—this exodus. Engineering Empathy is a series of seminars that ‘focus on the human side of software development’ and make up 20% of the bootcamp’s curriculum. Dev Bootcamp is a 19-week program that trains students to become full-stack web developers, then helps them find jobs. The program was founded in 2012 and has since graduated 1,700 students across its campuses in Chicago, New York, San Diego and San Francisco. It is one of many ‘code bootcamps’ to crop up over the past few years in response to growing national interest in the tech industry and its abundance of high-paying jobs. Many code schools and bootcamps tout diversity as a top priority, and in fact, women represent more than 36% of the students in these programs. Some, such as Women Who Code, focus on a specific group, while others offer scholarships to women and minority candidates. However, Anne Spalding, the director of Dev Bootcamp in San Francisco, says these efforts alone won’t create significant change, since developers don’t work in a void. Overcoming the gender gap not only requires getting more women into developer positions, but also ensuring that they stay there, which requires more than coding chops. ‘Every week, it seems like there is a new report about how women should ‘lean in’ and be more assertive,’ says Spalding. ‘I think rather than asking women to adjust to the majority, we should help create systems of inclusion, and ask the majority to open up so more voices can be heard.’”
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