Code: A Tool to Repair Gender Gap in Digital Age

Introduction

Gender gap is not only a fundamental human rights problem, but it is also an important problem for creating a prosperous, modern economy in information societies that will increase on educational models which produce innovative and efficient employment on competitiveness and welfare in the digitalized world (Şirin, 2014). Modern economies are increasingly based on digital technologies which provide new paths for economic empowerment of people and this is forcing individuals who are today’s students and future employees to have necessary a set of skills. These skills help individuals to take advantage of opportunities in many areas that are emerged with digital technologies, to understand all aspects of life in a deeper way and to cope with the problems that are coexisting within this process. In addition to this, the pervasiveness of information technology means that reading proficiency is becoming even more crucial and that young people need to master new forms of reading and, hence, literacy skills (OECD, 2018). One of the important problems in front of this process is the effects of gender-based inequalities which are built upon existing social structure that creates gender gap and affects future development. World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report (2018) demonstrated the rising demand for roles in fields such as data analysis, human resources and sales, roles that are the frontier of the new economy. The Global Gender Gap report (2020) by World Economic Forum revealed the set of growing professions which will be at the forefront of the emerging economy and cautions that they already exhibit nascent segregation along gender lines. Across twenty leading economies, there are the eight clusters of professions with increasing employment prospects -People and Culture, Content Production, Marketing, Sales, Product Development, Data and AI, Engineering and Cloud Computing. Among those eight micro-clusters, only two exhibit greater employment of women as compared to men—People and Culture, and Content Production (World Economic Forum, 2020). All these reports show that the global gender gap in the growing professions which have the power to design future societies will affect the direction and scope of developments in an unequal way. Many activists, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and scholars carry out various activities in order to reduce the impact of this situation, which has caused to exist and develop of gender gap, on women.

This chapter adverts the activities and their outcomes that aim to reduce the factors underpin gender gap in the education field and labor market all around the world in the digital age. After that, the author touches on the impact of social network activities as an environmental supporting mechanism tool on the closure of gender gap. For this purpose, the author examines the Facebook pages such as Girls Who Code, Black Girls Code and Girl Develop It that aim to reduce gender gap that women face in the coding area. Activities on these pages are analyzed with using of Possible Selves Theory framework. Possible Selves Theory describes how current and future representations of who one is and who one might become to motivate behavior (Markus & Nurius, 1986) and “translate into life choices” (Lips, 2007, p. 51). Possible Selves Theory contributes to a broader understanding of how these activities on Facebook pages may affect gender gap in coding area. It helps to highlight how role model; success story and example might inspire both current and future representations of one’s self. It is used to analyze these representations as a hope for future selves on related behavior and career aspirations.