TED Talk: Teach Girls Bravery, Not Perfection
Bravery has always been used in times of need-- saving a child from a burning building, standing up to a bully, the list can go on. The fact is, however, that bravery doesn't need an act; bravery is a mentality. Sadly, it is a mentality that Reshma Saujani, the founder of the tech organization Girls Who Code, says is usually only taught to boys.
In her TED talk, she tells some incredible stories. I will be highlighting the best of her presentation, but I highly suggest you watch her speak as well and get other details.
Saujani uses an example from a 1980s experiment by psychologist Carol Dweck of girls being quick to give up, even in fifth grade: "The higher the IQ, the more likely they were to give up." On the other hand, it was found that bright boys "found the difficult material to be a challenge. They found it energizing. They were more likely to redouble their efforts."
The issue isn't intelligence, it is that "women have been socialized to aspire to perfection, and they're overly cautious." STEM requires trial and error. Most, if not everything in life, requires trial and error, which means failure. Since boys and men are more likely to attempt in the first place, thus making them succeed as well, women are left gravitating toward careers they know they will be great or perfect at.
Saujani also references her friend Lev Brie, who is a professor at the University of Columbia and teaches intro to Java, saying that when "guys are struggling with an assignment, they'll come in and they'll say, 'Professor, there's something wrong with my code.' The girls will come in and say, 'Professor, there's something wrong with me."
This is what women are taught. Rather than questioning others or the material, they consider themselves failures; they beat themselves down until they are too fearful to make mistakes. This isn't just done mentally by women. Women are also held to higher expectations since they hold fewer positions in STEM-related fields. One mistake really could be a career-ender.
Saujani says that as a society, "we have to begin to undo the socialization of perfection, but we've got to combine it with building a sisterhood that lets girls know that they are not alone. Because trying harder is not going to fix a broken system."
This all leads back to why I created this website. Women and girls need support, need resources, need uplifting and for all expectations otherwise to be erased. Women can easily be integral parts of STEM fields. Women can create, code, and build video games and websites and hold high-paying positions in tech companies. Women simply can.
As of 2012 when Saujani began her tech company, they taught 20 girls. As of 2016, they taught 40,000 in all 50 states. They have 80+ partners including Twitter, Facebook, Adobe, IBM, Microsoft, Pixar, and Disney to name a few.
If you're interested in code or know someone who may be, now is the time.
If you're doubting whether you should post a video of you playing a game, start that first stream, build that first website, or return to a channel you quit, a game you stopped working on, just go for it. Go back to it. Start it. Fail. Fail ten times. But be brave. Learn from your failures and strive to make the next one a success. If it isn't, push on. Listen to Nike. Just do it. And also support girls and women around you. Egg them on. Don't focus on the failures, focus on the potential.
In her TED talk, she tells some incredible stories. I will be highlighting the best of her presentation, but I highly suggest you watch her speak as well and get other details.
Saujani uses an example from a 1980s experiment by psychologist Carol Dweck of girls being quick to give up, even in fifth grade: "The higher the IQ, the more likely they were to give up." On the other hand, it was found that bright boys "found the difficult material to be a challenge. They found it energizing. They were more likely to redouble their efforts."
The issue isn't intelligence, it is that "women have been socialized to aspire to perfection, and they're overly cautious." STEM requires trial and error. Most, if not everything in life, requires trial and error, which means failure. Since boys and men are more likely to attempt in the first place, thus making them succeed as well, women are left gravitating toward careers they know they will be great or perfect at.
Saujani also references her friend Lev Brie, who is a professor at the University of Columbia and teaches intro to Java, saying that when "guys are struggling with an assignment, they'll come in and they'll say, 'Professor, there's something wrong with my code.' The girls will come in and say, 'Professor, there's something wrong with me."
This is what women are taught. Rather than questioning others or the material, they consider themselves failures; they beat themselves down until they are too fearful to make mistakes. This isn't just done mentally by women. Women are also held to higher expectations since they hold fewer positions in STEM-related fields. One mistake really could be a career-ender.
Saujani says that as a society, "we have to begin to undo the socialization of perfection, but we've got to combine it with building a sisterhood that lets girls know that they are not alone. Because trying harder is not going to fix a broken system."
This all leads back to why I created this website. Women and girls need support, need resources, need uplifting and for all expectations otherwise to be erased. Women can easily be integral parts of STEM fields. Women can create, code, and build video games and websites and hold high-paying positions in tech companies. Women simply can.
As of 2012 when Saujani began her tech company, they taught 20 girls. As of 2016, they taught 40,000 in all 50 states. They have 80+ partners including Twitter, Facebook, Adobe, IBM, Microsoft, Pixar, and Disney to name a few.
If you're interested in code or know someone who may be, now is the time.
If you're doubting whether you should post a video of you playing a game, start that first stream, build that first website, or return to a channel you quit, a game you stopped working on, just go for it. Go back to it. Start it. Fail. Fail ten times. But be brave. Learn from your failures and strive to make the next one a success. If it isn't, push on. Listen to Nike. Just do it. And also support girls and women around you. Egg them on. Don't focus on the failures, focus on the potential.
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