Made with Code’s cultural climate is framed around 3 big issues:

1) Skill/Job Gaps. More than 65% of youths will work in jobs that don’t exist today — but a majority of them aren’t developing digital competencies needed to prepare for this future.

2) Lack of Women in CS. Less than 1% of high school girls express interest in majoring in Computer Science, and our research shows this is largely a perception problem — girls don’t see coding as interesting or relevant to their passions, don’t think they’ll be good at it, and don’t see other girls doing it. This lack of early interest has a pronounced impact on opportunities later on. For example, women make up just 18% of computer science degrees, down from 37% thirty years ago. And “though women now represent 47% of the workforce, as compared to 38% in the 1970s, only 12% of engineers are female.” (computersccience.org).

3) Fewer women Computer Science majors mean fewer women in tech overall, which contributes to perceptions of gender disparity and female unwelcomeness in tech culture. Made with Code aims to dispel this fiction by showing that women can be world class coders, and a welcome presence in tech.

When we started, most girls were not coding, yet they were more interested than ever in the stuff that code makes. We thought if we could make coding fun, and tied the cultural things that girls are inspired by and genuinely interested in, it might inspire more girls to get involved. If a teen asks us “What can you do with Code?”, we wanted our answer to be “You can literally do anything! Make the next hit film. Design the next trend in fashion. Help save lives. Build a new app." We want girls to see that it’s not just about building apps from ones and zeros; it’s about creating solutions that will impact billions. The best part is, even if girls don’t become engineers, they have learned skills (trial and error, critical thinking, etc) that will take them all sorts of places in life.

Made with Code has increased the scope and scale of our efforts by leaning into things girls love, specifically:

• Partnering with Wonder Woman and Google Play to share how coding is used in Hollywood movies, amplifying messages of female empowerment through a Wonder Woman coding project and mentor film with VFX producer Amber Kirsch.

• Hosting 40 girls in NYC for a globally livestreamed Talks@Google and coding event, featuring “A Wrinkle in Time” cast Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and director Ava DuVernay.

• Partnering with Snap to launch #MyFutureMe contest, inviting teens to design their own Snapchat Geofilter, and share the future they envision. Five finalists joined us at TEDWomen in New Orleans, where they worked alongside engineers to build a Snapchat Lens. A panel of judges including Ruth Porat, Evan Spiegel, Malala, and Lilly Singh selected a winning Lens to debut in the Snap app.

Since 2014, Made with Code has engaged with over 17 million girls, who have started over 11M coding projects. We’ve seen social grow by 40% in 2017 alone. But most important, our research has shown that Made with Code has impacted girls beyond the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) disciplines. 53% of non-STEM-Oriented teen girls who explored MwC felt coding can be used with their hobbies & interests, as compared to 37% of their peers in the control group. And 62% agree that Made with Code “made [them] want to learn more about coding”. The best part is, even if girls don’t become engineers, they have learned skills (trial and error, critical thinking, etc) that will open doors to new career and economic opportunities.

Our research found that adults and peer encouragement is the #1 contributor to a teen girl’s decision to pursue Computer Science. Our core audience is underrepresented girls, and the people who support them.

Our approach is to:

•Inspire girls through a series of videos about amazing women and girls using code to change the world - from improving children’s health in developing countries to creating their favorite animated films to making Wonder Woman come to life.

•Empower girls to code through fun, introductory coding projects that connect to the things they already love, such as music, movies, dance, fashion, or selfies. We fuel their interest through partnerships with favorite brands, celebrities, and Hollywood films.

•Sustain interests with support from parents, teachers, and companies, We provide resources and opportunities to deepen girls’ coding experiences, and also hosting coding parties across the country, inviting local girls to join the coding community.

Google has long been committed to closing equity gaps in education and working to ensure that all people have access to a quality education. A fundamental part of this is the need for students to develop both technical and non-technical skills which will help them to grow and thrive....and to enable them to be the creators, not just consumers of technology. Our commitment is seen across all our work in education: from making the same software we use to run Google freely available to teachers & students to our $160M commitment to non-profit organizations tackling education gaps around the world. We also run a portfolio of free programs to help students become digitally ready.

Nothing exemplifies this better than Made with Code - our program to inspire millions of girls to experience the beauty of code and to help them see coding as a means to pursue their dreams. Since 2014, the program has been working to show girls that the things they love are made with code and to get them coding for the first time.