The Week of Women and Media, organized by the Front Casperiana Lisandra, took place between March 15th and 17th of 2016 in Cásper Líbero College and its schedule counted with several debates and workshops inspired by the month of International Women Fight.
During Thursday afternoon (17), several girls, students and non-students, were able to get together in our college to join the Minas Programam Workshop, which was planned in order to work basic programming concepts and encourage the women to take an interest on the world of computing.
Under the orientation of the manager Anna Flávia de Camargo, the workshop started with a brief presentation of each of the participating girls, who explained why they had interest in being there. All of them admitted never having had contact with anything related to programming, but all of them have also demonstrated curiosity to learn a little more about it.
From there, they all started to work. Always attentive, Anna Flávia explained basic concepts of JavaScript in a very didactic way, and clarified all doubts of the girls while they were doing the exercises. This eliminated any fear that they might have about the difficulty in understanding the content. In fact, after they acquired some practice, it was possible to see large patterned smiles on the face of each of them, who cheered to see the results of their efforts on the computer screen.
Finally, so that the learning would end with the workshop, the manager recommended a book of guidance to the girls, and gave them the link of the Minas Programam website so that those who had an interest in knowing more about the project could search about it.
Casperians and visitors in the Minas Programam workshop, an event that was part of the schedule of the Fourth Week of Women and Media in Cásper Líbero College
But how was the Minas Programam project designed?
According to the project’s website, the Minas Programam was born from the finding of the low presence of women in technology and the increasing of the importance of programming skills in the labor market. Considering aspects such as courses with prohibitive prices and the entire educational and marketing apparatus that keeps girls and women away from this area, they believe in the need to discuss the historical process behind this reality and to take this place. So the idea is to promote basic training in programming for girls and women that want to make websites, work with technology and learn more about programming, but do not know where to start. In addition to learning to program, they also discuss the labor market, security and privacy, free software and activism.
The target audiences of the initiative are women that are activists, entrepreneurs, communicators and students. The main intention is that the course is all or mostly taught by women, to show the students that there are female professionals capable and active in the area.
First class of students graduated in the programming course for women
Who participates, explains
Coordinator of Minas Programam team, Anna Flávia (24 years old) spoke to Her Campus about her personal experience with programming and the project. Check out the interview below
How did you learn to program?
AF: I started getting interested in programming when I was very young. At the time, the access to information was not as easy as today. Google did not exist, Stack Overflow wasn’t even a thing and Mozilla was still taking its first steps from Netscape, so there wasn’t Mozilla Developer Network as well. My research sources were the famous blog Maujor and its CSS and Web Standards tips, and some attempts to communicate with programmers and analysts IRC, with translations en-EN> pt-BR provided by the dear and retired Babylon.
What does programming mean to you?
AF: Programming for me is, in addition to developing software, a way to understand how things really work in practice. As algorithms translate my code in binary, as thermodynamics converts my binary, as the resistors receive this message and pass in the form of energy what I typed on my computer screen. We are so used to consuming technology without properly understanding it. And this understanding brings benefits to all sectors, starting with the importance of projects that bring water to needy populations, provide collective donations, and mobilize the mass to fight against male violence and many others. And with the tools we have today, it has become much easier. People are conscious about the use and going from consumer to producer status.
In your opinion, what is the importance of disseminating knowledge in programming to other women?
AF: Until the 50s, the presence of women in laboratories was strictly prohibited. Of the countless things that women were prevented from exercising and knowing, the exact sciences were (and still are) one of them. In the movie “The Imitation Game,” which tells the story of Alan Turing in the job of unraveling the Enigma during World War II, counts with the presence of Joan Clarke, a female mathematical and cryptanalyst who earned two pounds per shift (at least 80% less than men who performed the same function) and had to forge another exercise that was not the scientist, so that her father would allow her to leave home to work. What has changed from 1940 to nowadays is that, according to the Inter-American Development Bank, women now earn 30% less. While this disparity exists, the importance of teaching and introducing women in the exact areas will also continue to exist.
How is your experience working with the Minas Programam?
AF: I met Minas Programam last October and could not be more pleased with the work we are doing. Ariane Corniani (29 years old), Bárbara Paes (23 years old) and Fernanda Balbino (23 years old) are three amazing women who started this work from nothing with the main intention of including women in IT and I decided to join forces and help them in this effort. I’ve got to know many other incredible women who were my students and from there to now, I’ve developed my knowledge on a larger scale than in the last three years of my professional ride. To be part of a change in this system, no matter how small it is, is a great satisfaction and this is what drives me to continue.
The four managers of the Minas Programam project (from left to right): Bárbara, Fernanda, Ariane and Anna