VOA慢速英语:Growing Girls Who Code

American colleges and universities awarded about one million seven hundred thousand bachelor’s degrees in the school year ending in twenty ten. Fifty-seven percent of the recipients were female. Yet only eighteen percent of the women earned degrees in computer and information sciences.
2010学年，美国高校授予了大约170万个学士学位，57%的学位获得者为女性。然而，当中只有18%的人获得了计算机和信息科学的学位。

Reshma Saujani would like to change that. She launched an organization called “Girls Who Code” in two thousand eleven. Her goal is to get more girls interested in science and technology.
Reshma Saujani想改变这种状况。2011年，她创办了一个名为“Girls Who Code”的组织，她的目标是让更多女生对科学技术感兴趣。

"It's predicted that we’ll have about one point four million jobs that are open in the next twenty years in the science and technology related fields. But, only twenty-nine percent of Americans today have the skills to actually fill those jobs. And many of those Americans are men. And less than twenty percent of women are actually going into the technology and science related professions. And so we have an enormous gap.”
“据预测，未来20年在科学技术相关领域将有约140万个就业机会。但如今，只有29%的美国人有能力来填补这些职位，而他们大多数是男性。只有不到20%的女性真正进入科技相关专业。因此，这是一个相当大的差距。”

And she says the underrepresentation of women in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, also known as STEM, is caused by a bigger societal issue.
她说，女性在科学、技术、工程和数学（也称为STEM）这些领域的代表性不足，这是由一个巨大的社会问题造成的。

“Girls and boys perform about the same in math and science. So there’s not an aptitude issue.”
“男生和女生在数学和科学上表现并无差异，所以并不存在资质问题。”

Reshma Saujani says we live in a society that sends messages that girls should avoid these fields of study.
Reshma Saujani说，我们生活的社会在传递女生应该避免这些领域的研究的信息。

“I can still go to Forever 21 and buy a t-shirt that says ‘allergic to algebra.’ We still have that Barbie that would say that she hated math. And we still have this kind of cultural stereotype that a computer scientist or a programmer is kind of like a dorky, young white guy.”
“到Forever 21仍然可以买到印着‘代数过敏’的T恤。我们仍有会说她讨厌数学的芭比娃娃。我们仍然有计算机科学家或程序员有点傻傻的年轻白人小伙子这样一种刻板印象。”

“Girls Who Code” has partnered with educators, engineers and business people. Twenty girls took part in the group’s first eight-week program last summer in New York City. They learned how to build websites and mobile apps, and create business plans.
“Girls Who Code”组织同教育工作者，工程师和商界人士建立了伙伴关系。20名女生去年夏天在纽约参加了该组织首批为期8周的课程。她们学会了如何建立网站和移动应用程序，并创建商业计划。

“We took girls on field trips to the NYPD, to Facebook, to Twitter. And we showed them how technology is a part of every, every industry. Whether it’s fashion, whether it’s medicine. And that you can really use technology to really change the world.”
“我们带女孩们到NYPD，到Facebook，到Twitter实地考察。向他们展示了技术如何进入每一个行业。无论是时尚，还是医学。而你们可以利用科技真正改变这个世界。”

Ms. Saujani says companies have been very supportive of the group.
Saujani女士称，各公司一直非常支持这个组织。

“The private sector really understands that they have an enormous pipeline problem. We have a huge shortage of engineers. And they invest in “Girls Who Code” to really grow that pipeline.”
“私营部门真正明白，他们有一个巨大的人才渠道问题，我们存在巨大的工程师短缺。而他们投资“Girls Who Code”来拓展该渠道。”

Google was the first business to invest in the group. Reshma Saujani says if not for Google, “Girls Who Code” would not exist. Twitter, General Electric, eBay and others have also provided support.
Google第一个投资该组织。Reshma Saujani称，如果不是Google，就不会有“Girls Who Code”组织。 Twitter、General Electric、eBay以及其它企业也为该组织提供了支持。

Ms. Saujani says the program has been extremely successful. She says all the girls who took part in its first group plan to continue their STEM training. And, she says, “Girls Who Code” hopes to train many more.
Saujani女士称，这个项目一直非常成功。参加该组织首批计划的所有女生都继续参加了STEM培训。她还称，“Girls Who Code”希望培养更多人。

“If our goal at “Girls Who Code” is to really close the STEM gap, we realize that we have to teach two million girls how to code in the next twenty years.”
“如果我们‘Girls Who Code’的目标是确实缩小STEM差距，我们意识到，我们必须在未来20年教会200万女生如何编程。”