Google Santa Tracker Is Back

theodp writes: Google Santa Tracker is back, notes the Official Google Blog, and kids can brush up on their computer skills there with new coding games throughout the month. If they want to explore more Google coding projects, Santa Tracker advises kids to visit Made With Code, where they can learn how to "design a ZAC Zac Posen dress that turns heads and lights up a room." Made with Code, Google explains in its FAQS, is part of the company's $90M mission to creatively engage girls with code. Last year, Made With Code teamed with the National Park Service to make the lighting of the White House Christmas trees a girls-only coding project.

Comments

Girls only

[Anonymous Coward]

Boys graduate college at much lower rates than girls, get locked up at much higher rates (and for longer on average for the same crime), usually lose their kids and have to pay alimony and child support in a divorce (even if the women initiates and even in cases where she cuckolded him),
work longer hours (that's largely where the wage discrepancy comes from), and are still socially obligated to pay for things for their women
But yeah, girls need another advantage. Because girl power! And if you disagree with this you're sexist. And a rapist. And that's guilty until proven innocent on that rape charge, and even if it's proven innocent, your reputation is still tarnished. Girl power!

Re:Girls only

[AmiMoJo]

The point about graduation rates is not percentages, it's that everyone who wants to has an opportunity to do so. It seems like boys could do with a little more encouragement in some areas, but then again so could girls in others. It's too complex a subject to be boiled down to a sentence.

If you feel socially obligated to pay for stuff, then why not push back? I don't subscribe to that and I don't have any trouble on dates (although I'm in a long term relationship now). Maybe it's because I'm an interesting person and am not just looking to get into the girl's pants by "paying" for sex with an expensive date.

You should push for better working conditions for men too. It's one reason why I'm a feminist - you could accurately describe this stuff as "men's rights", but that term has turned into such a shitstorm that it's better to just say you are a feminist because those are the actual values and philosophy you are following. I won't do long hours and discourage others from doing them, and will argue strongly against anything that rewards people for screwing up their work/life balance.

Re: Girls only

[ranton]

When challenged, absolutely NO ONE seems to be able to provide proof of a "brogrammer" culture that people seem to cite when they talk about the numbers of women in "tech".

I am a white male in his 30's, so I don't have to worry about any of this. But I see my female coworkers who cannot get a client to believe they are competent because they are women. I see their ideas attributed to the first man who publicly agrees with them (I have had to explicitly remind people in a meeting that an idea originated with a female coworker). I see similar cultural influences that tell African American men being smart isn't cool tell women that being nerdy isn't feminine. I also see women who have a hard time finding professionals they can identify within a workforce that is so heavily male dominated.

I could go on, but it doesn't matter. If you still don't see the inequality of opportunity in the IT field towards women after years of the industry starting to come to terms with it, you are willfully trying to ignore the problem.

Thus spake Zarathustra.

[minkowski76]

"Made With Code teamed with the National Park Service to make the lighting of the White House Christmas trees a girls-only coding project." Discrimination is morally-justified when it's really just revenge dressed up as diversity.

Re:Girls only coding project?

[Anonymous Coward]

The first compiler was developed by a woman, Grace Hopper.