The coding world is a man’s world: 80 to 90 percent of code out there has been written by men. This means that the world itself is being designed by men, according to Actua CEO Jennifer Flanagan.
“Coding impacts every day of our lives,” Flanagan said at the Expo for Design, Innovation & Technology in Toronto. “We won’t achieve our innovation potential if we don’t ensure diversity around the table.”
Kids—especially girls—could be the key to the next big tech innovation, she said.
What Actua Does
Through experiential learning, Canada’s largest STEM-outreach organization, Actua, teaches foundational skills in science, tech, engineering and math to help kids prepare for careers of the future.
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Actua works through a national network of member programs based at universities and colleges, which run camps, clubs and workshops, plus programming in northern and remote communities. Much of the teaching is done by undergraduate students hired as instructors, so kids learn from people only a few years older than they are. The organization says it engages about 500,000 youth a year in some 600 communities across Canada, and that it has reached six million young people since it began.
The Argument for Girls in STEM
We need women’s perspective for “better research and better products,” Flanagan recently wrote in BetaKit.
“We can no longer explain away women’s participation rates in tech careers by saying that ‘they just aren’t interested’ or ‘that these career types don’t meet the lifestyle preferences of women.’ To do this is to do a disservice, not just to women, but to society as a whole.”
Flanagan’s BetaKit column, published in August 2017, was a response to a Globe and Mail column that defended a widely shared 10-page anti-diversity memo written by a California-based software engineer. That column argued that biology explains why women are underrepresented in STEM. Flanagan disagreed, writing that the barriers women have faced, including stereotypes, structural constraints and bias, “are cultural, not scientific.”
She also argued that the stakes go well beyond fairness. “We will not solve the world’s big problems — whether it be cancer, climate change, food security, health care — if women are not at the table in equal numbers,” Flanagan wrote.
Why Start Young
Flanagan’s case for focusing on kids comes from what Actua sees in its programs. In the same column, she wrote that girls “love science and technology, and they are good at it,” but that they’re then discouraged from pursuing careers in those fields.
That’s why she argued the work has to begin very early. “The fact is that we have to engage girls in preschool, because that is when they start to internalize the hundreds of messages they receive telling them that STEM is not for them,” Flanagan wrote.
The logic is simple: if girls decide STEM isn’t for them before they’re old enough to choose a course, no amount of recruiting at university or in the workplace will fully fix the gap. Hands-on programs that let girls build and code early are meant to stop those messages from sticking.
What Happened Next
A few months after Flanagan spoke in Toronto, Actua got a big boost from Ottawa. In January 2018, BetaKit reported that the federal government was giving Actua $10 million from its new $50 million CanCode program, which funds non-profits to deliver STEM programs. Actua said it would use the money to expand coding programs across the country, and that its corporate supporters, including Google Canada and Microsoft, would match the funding.
The relationship has continued through several rounds. In March 2025, Actua announced renewed CanCode funding, building on three previous rounds, which it said would let it engage 350,000 youth and more than 8,000 educators in every province and territory. This time the emphasis included training in AI and emerging tech. Flanagan is still Actua’s President and CEO.
What It Means for the Tech Industry
Flanagan’s point is a practical one for tech companies, not just a social one. Products reflect the people who build them, and teams that leave out half the population are more likely to miss what half their users need.
For companies that want a more diverse workforce in ten years, the pipeline starts long before the hiring process. Supporting youth programs, offering mentors, and showing girls what a career in tech actually looks like are all ways to help make sure the next generation of code isn’t written almost entirely by men.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much of the world's code has been written by men?
According to Actua CEO Jennifer Flanagan, 80 to 90 percent of code out there has been written by men, which in Flanagan's view means the world itself is being designed by men.
What is Actua?
Actua is Canada's largest STEM-outreach organization. It teaches kids foundational skills in science, tech, engineering and math through experiential learning, and says it engages about 500,000 youth a year in some 600 communities across Canada.
Why did Jennifer Flanagan write the 2017 BetaKit column?
Flanagan was responding to a Globe and Mail column that defended an anti-diversity memo and argued biology explains why women are underrepresented in STEM. Flanagan wrote that the barriers women face are cultural, not scientific.
Why does Jennifer Flanagan say girls need to be engaged with STEM early?
Flanagan wrote that girls need to be engaged in preschool, because that is when they start to internalize the many messages telling them that STEM is not for them.
What government funding has Actua received since 2017?
In January 2018, Actua received $10 million from the federal government's new CanCode program. In March 2025, Actua announced renewed CanCode funding that it said would let it engage 350,000 youth and more than 8,000 educators, with a focus that included AI.