Birkbeck University is currently partnering with “Code First: Girls” to run a 6-week coding workshop for female students at Birkbeck University. We the undersigned believe that this workshop should be opened up to accept all students, regardless of gender.

By excluding male students purely based on their gender you are denying them equality of opportunity. This is sexism in itself, the very thing ‘Code First: Girls’ claims to be fighting against.

Both male and female students deserve equal access to the acquisition and development of skills which are invaluable in the workplace in the 21st century. By denying male students this opportunity, you inhibit their potential to succeed in the workplace and attain a higher-level position in the workforce than they otherwise would have.

By making this workshop exclusively female you are implying that women need special treatment to reach the same level as men. That women are incapable of competing on a level playing field with men. It is self-defeating on countless levels.

If I created a male only coding workshop it would be branded as sexist and probably shut down by the University, yet it is acceptable to create a female-only workshop? How exactly is this gender equality? And if you believe in gender equality and also equality of opportunity, why are you excluding males from also getting these skills and alienating a group of students purely because of their gender? There is a massive double standard present in Universities up and down this nation.

Denying equality of opportunity for women is viewed as sexist. Denying equality of opportunity for men is viewed as empowering.

Laura Gemmell, one of the advocates of this workshop, has stated “Code First: Girls is a social enterprise which focuses on supporting women as there is a specific challenge for women entering technology and entrepreneurship”, yet provides no statistical evidence to support this claim.

In the words of Pedro Santos, “The challenge is there for every student, regardless of gender”.

Another argument is that the IT sector is too male-dominated. The reason that certain fields are dominated by men, and others by women is not because of any ingrained bias in society, but because men and women will innately gravitate towards certain subjects. There is absolutely no need to have a 50/50 gender split in all fields. As long as there is equal pay for the same work between the genders across all fields (which there is by the way) there is no problem. Give all students equal opportunity, and let them choose what they want to study, but do not pressure more females or males into certain professions purely for the purpose of gender representation.

We the undersigned believe in equality of opportunity for male and female students. We demand that this workshop should be open to every student at Birkbeck University.