Words by Smiley Team
In a move designed to celebrate the unseen contributions of female coders, Girls Who Code is launching “Missing Code,” a digital campaign that illustrates how broken the internet would be if not for the work done by women.
Since launching in 2012, Girls Who Code has reached 500 million people through its work and 300,000 girls through its in-person programming. College-aged alumni of Girls Who Code are declaring majors in computer science and related fields at 15 times the U.S. average.
In 2020, women made up just 26 percent of computing jobs. The campaign highlights the contributions of women in tech and shifts perceptions of what a programmer looks like, while also drawing attention to the gender gap.
“There is still a perception out there that coding isn’t for girls, but that’s not true—we know that a huge part of the web was coded by women,” said Reshma Saujani, founder and CEO of Girls Who Code.
“With this campaign, we’re hoping to inspire the next generation of women coders by showing them what the world would look like if they weren’t building it, designing it, coding it. Because without their contributions, the world as we know it, would fall apart.”
The campaign kicks off with a one-minute film, featuring a young woman navigating a broken, glitchy internet—realizing what the world would be like if girls didn’t code. The film includes a cameo by singer-songwriter-actor-gamer mxmtoon. The film is created by director Sonejuhi Sinha in collaboration with the filmmaking collective shy kids and produced by Division7.
The “Missing Code” campaign features an interactive portal where visitors can surf an alternate, dystopian internet missing the code written by women. The portal features mocked up homepages of top platforms—including Teen Vogue, Sephora, and Adidas — reprogrammed to show just how crucial women are to the field.
“We are thrilled to support our partner Girls Who Code on the ‘Missing Code’ campaign which reinforces the important roles women have played in building the web,” said Nicole Small, CEO of Lyda Hill Philanthropies® and co-founder of the IF/THEN® Initiative who are supporting the event.
“We know that ‘IF she can see it, THEN she can be it’ and hope this campaign will inspire more girls to follow in the footsteps of the brilliant women who came before them.”
“We needed something that grabs attention and changes the way people see this industry,” explained Mo Said, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Mojo Supermarket. “Everyone thinks of coders as nerdy guys in loose fitting hoodies. We wanted to engage teens and actually change that perception. How do you show that the internet needs women coders? By showing just how much it would suck without them.”
To view the portal, visit www.missing-code.com. To follow updates about the campaign, follow Girls Who Code at @GirlsWhoCode on all social media.
