Baratang Miya, founder of the Girlhype coding project, is passionate about helping young women pursue a career in tech. Let’s find out why…
When Baratang Miya looks back on what inspired her career in tech, she believes it all started in the small mining town where she grew up. It was a mining community, so technical jobs were in high demand and she was taught that being an engineer was important because their skills were so sought after.
But none of the girls in her class had aspirations of being engineers, because no one told them it was something they could do. Careers in STEM fields simply were not being promoted as viable options for girls. When Miya was first was exposed to computers, she instantly realised the huge impact these tools could have.
She wanted to make sure that future generations of young girls and young women were given the opportunity to pursue more technical roles, and so Girlhype was born. We asked Miya about how the program has developed since it started out more than two decades ago.
How has Girlhype evolved over time?
Girlhype is now more mature. It’s not an emotional passion project any more. It’s become a business. We have moved from focusing only on upskilling high-school girls in tech towards becoming a pipeline for university students to enter the workforce.
It is now more of a future-focused project and we are far more intentional about things. When we take a girl on to the project, we want to go on a journey with them.
How has the industry changed?
When I joined the tech space in 2003, there were no role models for me to look up to. I had never met a computer scientist that was female. Now, they are everywhere. I think that the promotion of STEM careers for women has made a big impact.
The needle has moved and it is still moving! Today, there is an understanding that women can lead — they can be bold without being labelled bossy. Parents are also really interested in getting their kids into this space. Every other parent I meet these days wants to know what coding is and how they can teach their child to code.
But I think were focusing too much on coding. Telling women that coding is the only way to get into tech is no longer true. There are so many paths into tech. When I started, I’d say: ‘learn to code, learn technical languages, learn software development’. The industry’s different now.
What projects are you working on now?
Our school project now focuses on coding and mathematics. So we have paired the coding with teaching maths skills, too. Our pipeline project is focused on helping university graduates who did not study STEM, but want to go into tech.
We show them how to go into tech. Next year we are launching our Woman project, which will teach women how to survive in tech spaces. Here we focus on teaching them how to use no-code development platforms, since they don’t need to become coders, they just need to understand how to ‘speak tech’ and how to succeed in tech spaces.
How can we achieve more inclusion in the tech space?
When a space is created by one group of people, there will always be those who feel left out. Because men currently develop 90% of new technologies and platforms, women will always have to fit themselves into these spaces instead of just being a part of them.
To address this, I really believe that we need more female investors so that when a woman comes up with an innovative idea, they will more easily get the funding they need to bring their ideas into reality. We cannot continue saying to women that they must enter this space that is run, led and owned by men, because they will never be part of it.
Your advice to young women looking at career in tech?
A career in tech is exciting! It’s fun, it gives you the freedom to be creative, to come up with new ideas, and to be who you really are. It allows you to work in teams or to work on your own and you can work in your own time. There are so many opportunities in tech for women. They just need to go for it.
Words by Joanne Carew @Littlecarew
