Actor and entrepreneur Malinda Williams recently announced the launch of an initiative dedicated to coding for HBCU students.
In a press release, Williams said that, with her Arise and Shine Foundation Inc nonprofit, she’ll be making available a coding bootcamp for women at HBCUs now open for applicants to sign up for.
Known as the E.S.T.E.A.M. (Entrepreneurship, Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) Project, the program will provide young women with the skills they need to enter the tech field.
Throughout the course of four weeks, the initiative will provide students with networking opportunities and training, particularly when it comes to app development.
The course will revolve around teaching the women on how to use Apple’s SwiftUI programming language as well as how to navigate business.
“As a professional actress and someone who has experienced first-hand the support of my community, I understand the value of collaboration and paying it forward,” said Williams per the press release. “The Arise And Shine Foundation exists to empower women to reach their goals and coding is a powerful tool – it is the language of the future. The E.S.T.E.A.M. Project will offer young women an avenue to acquire valuable skills to propel them forward in the 21st century.”
With the program, Williams and the Arise and Shine Foundation are doing their part to address the disparities that exist for women in the tech field.
Overall, women have an increased difficulty in entering this white male-dominated career field.
Per Womentech Network, only 28% of roles in the computer and mathematical field are occupied by women. When they’re in these roles, women are more likely to be victims of layoffs. In 2022, they accounted for approximately 69% of the employees in tech that were laid off.
The entrance into the tech field is even more difficult for Black women. Faced with both racial and gender inequities, only approximately three percent of tech roles are occupied by Black women.
After they become part of the tech field, Black women are paid less for their work. With the pay gap, they earn only $52,000 each year as their annual salary.
Overall, according to a report by Hired, they make approximately $0.92 per every $1 a white man in the field makes.
The lower rate marks a widening in the gender pay gap; just the year before, Black women in tech earned $0.94 per every $1 a white man made.
