Your layout and seating should help to ensure that:
Your Dojo is, and is also viewed as, friendly to girls, so that girls who hear about it or attend it feel it is as welcoming to them as it is to boys
First-time female attendees are as likely as their male counterparts to return to subsequent sessions and become regulars
A proportion of any group of people who try an activity for the first time will decide it is not actually something they want to do again. CoderDojo Scotland's 2017 report covering Dojo attendance from July 2012 to December 2016 notes that the percentage of first-time attendees who didn’t return for a second Dojo session was 19 points higher for girls compared to boys (64% vs 45%). Furthermore, only 23% of girls returned to more than one mixed Dojo (39% for boys). The Dojo’s team notes in the report that “there may be factors in the Dojos themselves which discourage girls from becoming regular attendees”.
Potentially discouraging layout approaches include:
Putting highly experienced Ninjas beside complete beginners
Separating girls in male-majority spaces
Distancing female Mentors from female Ninjas
Dividing girls from friends
Allowing unconscious bias in layout (seating girls far from engaging areas)
While there are many ways of creating a welcoming environment, we suggest four key approaches which can be used independently or in conjunction to help attract and retain more girls:
Keeping peers/friends together
Experience-based layout
Age-based layout
Girls table/space
1.2 Experience-based layout
Many Dojos encourage girls to continue attending by creating a beginner space for Ninjas where they “feel safe to express themselves, to ask questions, and to speak their minds” (Gemma Cagney, Mentor at Silicon Docks Dojo). Some Dojos do this by setting up a table for beginners, or for those who are new to the Dojo. This space allows beginners to:
Develop relationships with others who are new to the content being covered
Ask questions without being afraid that others around them might know the answer
Make mistakes without worrying that others might see them in a negative light
A beginner's table can help quash what Harvey Mudd College (HMC) calls the ‘macho effect’. This term describes circumstances in which a few vocal students, who are more experienced with technology, dominate a group session and thus undermine the confidence of other students, who as a result are more likely to drop out.
Note: If there are particularly experienced and vocal Ninjas in your Dojo, who appear to be intimidating to others, encouraging them to be less dominant can often be accomplished by simply explaining that they might be making others feel less confident, and that they can discuss their experiences with a Mentor instead.
1.3 Age-based layout
In an approach similar to the experience-based layout, some Dojos split classes into age groups to deal with space and time constraints, as well as with older attendees becoming disengaged in an environment full of younger Ninjas. If a Dojo decides on this approach, the organisers usually create a space for 7- to 12-year-olds, and another space for 13- to 17-year-olds; you will be able to assess the best split for your group.
If you are contemplating splitting your Dojo by age, it is important to make sure that doing so also supports the continuation of female attendance. Studies have noted that there is a tendency for girls in particular to drop out around the ages of 12-13 as they transition to secondary/high school. At this age, many young people begin to judge activities in terms of whether they support their future and their career aspirations. Accenture’s latest report notes that girls’ career plans appear to be strongly influenced by what kind of work they enjoy and also see as creative and beneficial to society. Emphasising the plethora of computing-related careers, and how they fit these criteria, is a good way to encourage girls at this critical age to keep attending your Dojo .
We advise against implementing an age-based layout in your Dojo if only 20% (or less) of attendees are girls, especially if doing so would divide their numbers. In these extreme cases, we recommend setting up a girls table or space.
1.4 Girls table/space
Many girls can feel overwhelmed and out of place in a predominantly male environment. When there is such a skew, a dedicated table can be a very effective way of creating a welcoming space for girls within the larger Dojo. Girls tables can be particularly effective if you have a very low number (≤ 20%) of female Ninjas as well as female technical Mentors. Pete Gegen of Rochester, Illinois Dojo says, “We start girls-only teams, tables, or groups when the percentage of female participants drops very low (under 20%). We have seen this approach give very good results.”CoderDojo DCU, Clonakilty Dojo, and CoderDojo Ham (among other Dojos) have set up a table or space dedicated to girls at their events.
1.5 Targeted invites and select ticket holding
Encouraging girls who attend to return is vital, particularly in Dojos where they are in a minority. Targeting invites to girls who have previously attended and ring-fencing tickets for girls are both effective approaches to this. Some Dojos hold tickets specifically for girls who attended their last Dojo for a week or two before releasing them to the general public. Other Dojos hold a proportion for girls (anywhere from 20-50%) to encourage an increased uptake by girls. This method is particularly effective in Dojos which are consistently oversubscribed or sold out but have consistently low percentage of girls.
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1.6 Mentoring approaches
It is important that your Dojo’s mentoring approaches support how girls learn and ask for help. Gisela from CoderDojo Ham said that girls in her Dojo had a “different process of asking for help”, and she observed that they seldom spoke up when they were in need of assistance. In pedagogy it is noted that often the loudest children, or ‘squeaky wheels’, receive the most help and attention, whereas those who are shy and don’t speak up when they find something difficult are often assumed to be fine. Thus, less outspoken children can end up being overlooked, even if they are unable to progress. Providing a space for less confident girls can enable them to get the support they need, thereby preventing them from dropping out. Moreover, if they receive assistance and can advance their skills, this will likely help them to build their confidence and thus to speak up in future. See section 4 for specific advice on female Mentors.
Teaching bravery
Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code, notes that girls are being socialized to be perfect. In her coding program for girls, mentors see this embodied in girls being afraid of not getting things right straight away and often finding fault with themselves. Sometimes girls even prefer to pretend they didn’t try and don’t show their coding attempts to mentors. It is important to explain to girls that trial and error are necessary and useful parts of coding and debugging, and to encourage them to persevere and develop their resilience.
Fostering a support network
Developing a support network among the girls in your Dojo is another way to help build their resilience. Wendy of Clonakilty explains uses her girls table to try and promote camaraderie among the girls by encouraging them to celebrate each other’s accomplishments. She explains: “Before the National Scratch competition, I had all the girls show their entries just to the girls table. I wanted them to relish the sense of achievement — but I also wanted to show the girls how to support one another, so they could learn how to compete whilst also being happy for each other.”