Push is on to get girls interested in the tech sector

Males dominate in both computer-science classes and workplace

By Gillianh Shaw, Vancouver Sun June 16, 2014

Tech entrepreneur Sandra Wear is inviting teene girls to a coding boot camp, Be Like Ada (BeLikeAda.com), an initiative that has the support of the University of B.C. and B.C.’s tech sector.

Ada Lovelace, the woman known as the world’s first computer programmer, was born in 1815.

She was an exception in her time and, almost 200 years later, while women in technology aren’t exactly the exception, neither are they the rule.

Vancouver’s Sandra Wear is going into schools to try to change that, inviting teenage girls to a coding boot camp, Be Like Ada (BeLikeAda.com), an initiative that has the support of the University of B.C. and B.C.’s tech sector.

"It is a big problem," said Wear, a tech entrepreneur whose first venture into the industry saw her co-found DocSpace, a company that was acquired by Critical Path in 2000 for $568 million.

"Girls are being told at 13 they are not good at science and math," she said. "We're hurting ourselves. Not only is this unrealized potential but how are we going to fill jobs?"

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