David, this is such a thoughtful piece. As always, I appreciate the level of reflection you bring to your writing.
I wanted to pick up on your point about the name Code Like a Girl. I can see why it might feel a bit unusual at first glance, but that choice was very intentional.
In 2014, Always created an ad where they asked men, women, and boys to run like a girl, fight like a girl, and throw like a girl. When they modeled the actions, they did them in a weak, silly, ineffective way.
Then they asked girls to run like a girl, fight like a girl, and throw like a girl. They did it with gusto, with speed, with heart, and it didn't look weak or silly at all.
Then the producers showed the Women, Men, and boys what the girls had actually done when asked to run like a girl, fight like a girl, and throw like a girl and asked them to reflect on it. On why they did that and if what the girls actually did changed their perspective. It did.
The whole idea was reclaiming this idea that doing things "Like a Girl." Shouldn't be seen as weak, sad, pathetic, or less than. It should be seen as doing it well. We should be proud to do things like a girl.
At the same time, in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, the Canadian Women's hockey team won Gold.
Marie-Philip Poulin scored with 55 seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime after Canada had trailed 2-0. Then Haley Wickenheiser drew a penalty on American Hilary Knight during her breakaway in overtime, which led to the power-play situation. Poulin scored the winning goal on the power play to complete one of the most significant comebacks in Olympic history. It was a beautiful victory.
For weeks after this game, there were social media reports everywhere that girls and boys in Canada were playing street hockey, narrating this over and over. In the same way they did with their Male Hockey heros like Sidney Crosby. Boys were overheard on the street saying, "She Shoots, She scores!!!" Or "Wickenheiser to Poulin, she shoots, she scores!!!"
You have to understand that for many years, it has been an extreme insult to be told you play hockey like a girl. Here we were celebrating it. It was amazing.
So it was on the backdrop of this that, in the spring of 2015, I went to an event for Grade 9 girls called Think About Math. Held at the University of Waterloo, they brought in Women who previously earned math degrees from the university and had them speak with the girls about what they could do with a math degree. I didn't want to be some boring old lady telling them about my job. I wanted to inspire them. So I created a sticker with a girl on it that said "Code Like A Girl."
It also sparked something in me. This idea that women were not really accepted in tech. That there were so few of us. That we were often told we weren't technical enough. That to code like a girl was an insult, and I wanted to take it back. I wanted women to be seen as equals when it came to coding, that we belonged here. I wanted to change the narrative that Code Like A Girl was a bad thing.
In January 2016, when I needed a name for a Women in Tech publication that I was starting, it was right there in front of me.
Code Like a Girl.
The whole goal, especially in the early days, was to change perceptions of women in tech, get more girls interested in careers in tech, and help allies know how to support us.
Over the years, it has moved more into supporting women in tech by amplifying their voices, creating a community around them, and offering tips to allies on how they can help.
We still sometimes touch on Girls in STEM, but not as much as we used to.
So yes, it is weird that I run a publication that says Code Like a Girl, targeted to women. But we all still have a little girl inside us that was told we weren't good enough, and this is us reclaiming that.
Thanks for your continued support, David, and your thoughtful story. I hope you are having a wonderful easter weekend.
I love a good backstory - I watched a UK show about older men going for nature walks in order to get them to talk about the things they bottle up - one of them said he still felt like a child inside a man's body and so his companion read to him a letter from the poet Ted Hughes to his 24 year old son who had been worried he was still a boy.
Hughes wrote "At every moment, behind the most efficient seeming adult exterior, the whole world of the person’s childhood is being carefully held like a glass of water bulging above the brim. And in fact, that child is the only real thing in them. It’s their humanity, their real individuality..."
So I do totally relate to the girl inside - and I love how you are encouraging women to reclaim that inner person, celebrate her and grow.
I hope you turn your comment into a post as it was such a good read 🤗☕
Gladiatorial, yeah, that’s exactly right. Monopoly with my brother always ended in someone flipping the board. Guess who flipped the board? lol
To actually answer - yes, I see more collaboration among women writers on Substack and LinkedIn. But I also wonder if that’s partly because women have had to build those networks intentionally, since the old boys’ club wasn’t going to invite us.
Hmm… no girls allowed? I never get a no boys allowed vibe from @Code Like A Girl but do feel a bit out of my depth for commenting. The old boy’s club only lets in those with shared experiences - I don’t share their experience so am happy to be on the outside - not sure you are really missing anything and it is better to create something new than follow the well worn path.
I don’t see a lot of old boys collaborating as writers though - but maybe I’m just not looking in the places where they gather
I like what you said about being on the outside and choosing to create something new rather than following the same path. I support that 100%. I don’t think it’s about being “allowed” in or not, more that some spaces just weren’t built with everyone in mind from the start. Thank you very much David. 🤗☕
I love your wonderings here about gender and collaboration, from your experience and observation. I can resonate with so much here, despite my different location.
One thing I'm learning from my kids and younger generations is that it’s possible to see more than just 2 genders, which opens up more to the imagination :)
Nature and nurture play such an important part of our makeup - wasn't it the Jesuits who said something like give me the boy until the age of 7 and I will show you the man he will be?
Despite "bro code" I have found male friendships to be more surface level, especially in larger groups. Of course I could be entirely off the mark. It does help to belong to a group that lifts you up, and nowhere more than art.
There was a radio/TV interviewer from last century in my country who was asked what he thought made him a successful interviewer and he said he liked women, in his experience most men were afraid of women but he enjoyed talking with them and seeing their point of view.
Maybe that was a generational thing but I find men are pretty careful around other men as well and generally try to keep things on the surface... maybe its a defense mechanism to show no weakness which is why the bro code often is so excessive and reckless - shared guilt is at the least a shared emotion.
Art is a good place to be though and I'm always delighted to discover someone else who found reading their safe place.
When I first saw the name "code like a girl" of course my imaginations ran wild too on what that could mean. I'm not a quick judge person. So I decided to free as their works and I completely understood it's an empowering emancipation for the world tech, building inclusivity and community for girls and women alike in the field.
It's beautiful. And not to pinch you David, but I think women code faster hahaha. This was a very compelling read and I had so much fun my friend.
We need more empowering communities - like yours Ral - so much more can be accomplished together than alone yet social media encourages lone voices to compete
I don’t know about coding speed but as long as the code is solid I’m happy 🤗☕
Huh that's a very interesting insight, I hadn't actually thought about this at all. I'm a woman and I do collaborate with a lot of people here on substack and in my normal day job. It's something that comes naturally to me and I hadn't really thought about whether my collaboration partners are male or female, but now that you mention it, they are often female!
And I remain uncertain if women collaborate more than men due to men wanting to go it alone or whether they don’t know how to? I suspect it is more of a lone wolf reason as men can work together really well when they want to
I’ve never coded, so I’m not really qualified to weigh in, but I’d say diverse approaches to any problem have to be better, don’t they? Different personalities and genders bring something genuinely different to every challenge. And honestly, male/female might be a little limiting as a frame. The more interesting question is probably just: who’s in the room?
We were a Lego family. My dad was an engineer who designed and built boats, and all of us, girls and boys alike, were handed rainy day balsa wood and told to make something. Planes, boats, whatever we could imagine. Anything good enough got rendered in fibreglass. Horrible, scratchy, magnificent stuff. But Dad loved to work with it in the shed for a few years and one year i designed and made a large yacht - that promptly sunk but there you are - the lines were gorgeous! It had sails and everything.
As for who’s in the room I’m seeing in online spaces that often it is the women in the room and the men are outside doing their own thing - its just an observation and doesn’t have enough data to say its true - though they do say perception is reality
Hope you’ve had a great long weekend - the weather here has been outstanding - I don’t want to say Indian Summer but Autumn has been far better than summer was
“- though they do say perception is reality.” There is a whole post in that sentence David. Of maybe a song! 🤔 when I was in business I used to say “ it is not what you have done - it is what your perceived to be doing.”
It is pouring rain and gray hete today and with a baby and daylight saving, bloody bollocksy daylight saving, it feels like the longest day of my life!
David, this is such a thoughtful piece. As always, I appreciate the level of reflection you bring to your writing.
I wanted to pick up on your point about the name Code Like a Girl. I can see why it might feel a bit unusual at first glance, but that choice was very intentional.
In 2014, Always created an ad where they asked men, women, and boys to run like a girl, fight like a girl, and throw like a girl. When they modeled the actions, they did them in a weak, silly, ineffective way.
Then they asked girls to run like a girl, fight like a girl, and throw like a girl. They did it with gusto, with speed, with heart, and it didn't look weak or silly at all.
Then the producers showed the Women, Men, and boys what the girls had actually done when asked to run like a girl, fight like a girl, and throw like a girl and asked them to reflect on it. On why they did that and if what the girls actually did changed their perspective. It did.
https://beloved-brands.com/always-like-a-girl/
The whole idea was reclaiming this idea that doing things "Like a Girl." Shouldn't be seen as weak, sad, pathetic, or less than. It should be seen as doing it well. We should be proud to do things like a girl.
At the same time, in the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, the Canadian Women's hockey team won Gold.
Marie-Philip Poulin scored with 55 seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime after Canada had trailed 2-0. Then Haley Wickenheiser drew a penalty on American Hilary Knight during her breakaway in overtime, which led to the power-play situation. Poulin scored the winning goal on the power play to complete one of the most significant comebacks in Olympic history. It was a beautiful victory.
For weeks after this game, there were social media reports everywhere that girls and boys in Canada were playing street hockey, narrating this over and over. In the same way they did with their Male Hockey heros like Sidney Crosby. Boys were overheard on the street saying, "She Shoots, She scores!!!" Or "Wickenheiser to Poulin, she shoots, she scores!!!"
You have to understand that for many years, it has been an extreme insult to be told you play hockey like a girl. Here we were celebrating it. It was amazing.
So it was on the backdrop of this that, in the spring of 2015, I went to an event for Grade 9 girls called Think About Math. Held at the University of Waterloo, they brought in Women who previously earned math degrees from the university and had them speak with the girls about what they could do with a math degree. I didn't want to be some boring old lady telling them about my job. I wanted to inspire them. So I created a sticker with a girl on it that said "Code Like A Girl."
It also sparked something in me. This idea that women were not really accepted in tech. That there were so few of us. That we were often told we weren't technical enough. That to code like a girl was an insult, and I wanted to take it back. I wanted women to be seen as equals when it came to coding, that we belonged here. I wanted to change the narrative that Code Like A Girl was a bad thing.
In January 2016, when I needed a name for a Women in Tech publication that I was starting, it was right there in front of me.
Code Like a Girl.
The whole goal, especially in the early days, was to change perceptions of women in tech, get more girls interested in careers in tech, and help allies know how to support us.
Over the years, it has moved more into supporting women in tech by amplifying their voices, creating a community around them, and offering tips to allies on how they can help.
We still sometimes touch on Girls in STEM, but not as much as we used to.
So yes, it is weird that I run a publication that says Code Like a Girl, targeted to women. But we all still have a little girl inside us that was told we weren't good enough, and this is us reclaiming that.
Thanks for your continued support, David, and your thoughtful story. I hope you are having a wonderful easter weekend.
I love a good backstory - I watched a UK show about older men going for nature walks in order to get them to talk about the things they bottle up - one of them said he still felt like a child inside a man's body and so his companion read to him a letter from the poet Ted Hughes to his 24 year old son who had been worried he was still a boy.
Hughes wrote "At every moment, behind the most efficient seeming adult exterior, the whole world of the person’s childhood is being carefully held like a glass of water bulging above the brim. And in fact, that child is the only real thing in them. It’s their humanity, their real individuality..."
So I do totally relate to the girl inside - and I love how you are encouraging women to reclaim that inner person, celebrate her and grow.
I hope you turn your comment into a post as it was such a good read 🤗☕
Thanks David! I am not sure I have ever fully told the story. So thanks for the prompt. Hopefully others will enjoy it as well.
I never thought about board games that way.
Gladiatorial, yeah, that’s exactly right. Monopoly with my brother always ended in someone flipping the board. Guess who flipped the board? lol
To actually answer - yes, I see more collaboration among women writers on Substack and LinkedIn. But I also wonder if that’s partly because women have had to build those networks intentionally, since the old boys’ club wasn’t going to invite us.
Hmm… no girls allowed? I never get a no boys allowed vibe from @Code Like A Girl but do feel a bit out of my depth for commenting. The old boy’s club only lets in those with shared experiences - I don’t share their experience so am happy to be on the outside - not sure you are really missing anything and it is better to create something new than follow the well worn path.
I don’t see a lot of old boys collaborating as writers though - but maybe I’m just not looking in the places where they gather
Have a great week Neela 🌶️🤗☕
I like what you said about being on the outside and choosing to create something new rather than following the same path. I support that 100%. I don’t think it’s about being “allowed” in or not, more that some spaces just weren’t built with everyone in mind from the start. Thank you very much David. 🤗☕
I love your wonderings here about gender and collaboration, from your experience and observation. I can resonate with so much here, despite my different location.
One thing I'm learning from my kids and younger generations is that it’s possible to see more than just 2 genders, which opens up more to the imagination :)
Nature and nurture play such an important part of our makeup - wasn't it the Jesuits who said something like give me the boy until the age of 7 and I will show you the man he will be?
Thanks so much for reading Hans 🤗☕
I always enjoyed reading more than anything else!
Despite "bro code" I have found male friendships to be more surface level, especially in larger groups. Of course I could be entirely off the mark. It does help to belong to a group that lifts you up, and nowhere more than art.
Have a wonerful week!
There was a radio/TV interviewer from last century in my country who was asked what he thought made him a successful interviewer and he said he liked women, in his experience most men were afraid of women but he enjoyed talking with them and seeing their point of view.
Maybe that was a generational thing but I find men are pretty careful around other men as well and generally try to keep things on the surface... maybe its a defense mechanism to show no weakness which is why the bro code often is so excessive and reckless - shared guilt is at the least a shared emotion.
Art is a good place to be though and I'm always delighted to discover someone else who found reading their safe place.
Thanks for being here Dr Priyanka 🤗☕
Thanks for sharing your thoughts David. Pleasure to read you and your art is awesome! Have a wonderful week!
When I first saw the name "code like a girl" of course my imaginations ran wild too on what that could mean. I'm not a quick judge person. So I decided to free as their works and I completely understood it's an empowering emancipation for the world tech, building inclusivity and community for girls and women alike in the field.
It's beautiful. And not to pinch you David, but I think women code faster hahaha. This was a very compelling read and I had so much fun my friend.
We need more empowering communities - like yours Ral - so much more can be accomplished together than alone yet social media encourages lone voices to compete
I don’t know about coding speed but as long as the code is solid I’m happy 🤗☕
Huh that's a very interesting insight, I hadn't actually thought about this at all. I'm a woman and I do collaborate with a lot of people here on substack and in my normal day job. It's something that comes naturally to me and I hadn't really thought about whether my collaboration partners are male or female, but now that you mention it, they are often female!
And I remain uncertain if women collaborate more than men due to men wanting to go it alone or whether they don’t know how to? I suspect it is more of a lone wolf reason as men can work together really well when they want to
Thanks for stopping by Sophie 🤗☕
I’ve never coded, so I’m not really qualified to weigh in, but I’d say diverse approaches to any problem have to be better, don’t they? Different personalities and genders bring something genuinely different to every challenge. And honestly, male/female might be a little limiting as a frame. The more interesting question is probably just: who’s in the room?
We were a Lego family. My dad was an engineer who designed and built boats, and all of us, girls and boys alike, were handed rainy day balsa wood and told to make something. Planes, boats, whatever we could imagine. Anything good enough got rendered in fibreglass. Horrible, scratchy, magnificent stuff. But Dad loved to work with it in the shed for a few years and one year i designed and made a large yacht - that promptly sunk but there you are - the lines were gorgeous! It had sails and everything.
Maths. Coding of a primitive kind?
Bet your Dad was delighted you made a yacht!
As for who’s in the room I’m seeing in online spaces that often it is the women in the room and the men are outside doing their own thing - its just an observation and doesn’t have enough data to say its true - though they do say perception is reality
Hope you’ve had a great long weekend - the weather here has been outstanding - I don’t want to say Indian Summer but Autumn has been far better than summer was
“- though they do say perception is reality.” There is a whole post in that sentence David. Of maybe a song! 🤔 when I was in business I used to say “ it is not what you have done - it is what your perceived to be doing.”
It is pouring rain and gray hete today and with a baby and daylight saving, bloody bollocksy daylight saving, it feels like the longest day of my life!
Here’s a digital hug 🤗 - I love the end of daylight savings - so much more time in the morning to get things done
Happy Easter David! I'm glad I'm not the only one who got frustrated with Meccano!
Not you too Alexander 🤣 My boys hated it
I had a love/hate relationship with it! 🤣🤣