The way coding is taught is ineffective for a lot of women.

"You have to contextualize coding within things that they’re interested in, not within things that you think are important."

Are there ANY beginning coding classes that don't rely heavily on computer games, stock market picks, or robots?

At first I thought ouch when I read this but then I realized where she was coming from:

Learning to code is about entering another culture. Miriam mentioned the inside jokes that go along with this culture. Those jokes, along with many other things, are meant to keep people out. And that’s the nice way of doing it. If you’ve been to Slashdot lately, you’ll see the not so nice way. Programming culture, especially online, is not far off from Mad Men. Women are made to feel that they don’t belong and we shouldn’t worry our pretty little heads about it.

It's ironic since the first coder was a woman.

As was the person who invented programming languages and debugging.

As were the programmers on the first electronic computer, the ENIAC.

This post makes a good point.

I feel that programming is best self-taught, with Python and Ruby having the best tutorials out there. I don't remember these tutorials being excessively nerdboy oriented.

Thank you for sharing this perspective, Naomi.

It's too bad there aren't great JavaScript and CSS tutorials.