Places Where Girls and Women Can Learn to Code – Apply Now!
Everyone always talks about the lack of women coders in tech—and I can’t argue with the statistics. But it doesn’t have to stay that way! These days, there are more coding-for-women resources than ever to help female coders break into the technology industry.
Let’s explore some of the awesome places where women and girls can learn to code (oftentimes at little or no cost!).
The following list includes 26 organizations in the US and overseas that teach coding for women and girls.
It’s broken down into three sections: intensive coding bootcamps for women, coding classes and workshops for women, and coding for women and girls under 18.
Table of Contents
- Ada Developers Academy
- Hackbright Academy
- Skillcrush
- The Grace Hopper Program at Fullstack Academy
- 23 Code Street
- Codebar.io
- Code First Girls
- Girl Develop It (GDI)
- Ladies Learning Code by Canada Learning Code
- MotherCoders
- PyLadies
- Rails Girls
- RailsBridge
- Women Who Code
- Django Girls
- Coffee & Coded
- Lesbians Who Tech
- ChickTech
- Girls in Tech
- Hear Me Code
- Alexa Café
- Digital Youth Divas
- Black Girls Code
- Tech Scholars Online
- Girls Who Code (GWC)
- TechGirlz
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Intensive Coding Bootcamps for Women Coders
1) Ada Developers Academy
➡️ Website: adadevelopersacademy.org
💻 Course: Software development
💰 Price: Free
⏰ Duration: Six months of intensive in-class instruction, followed by five months of internship (11 months total)
📍 Location: Seattle, WA
Ada is a long-term developer academy for women and gender-diverse adults lasting 11 months. The first six months take place in a full-time Monday through Friday classroom setting, while the latter five months involve on-the-ground training.
It is a sponsor-supported coding bootcamp for women, with many big-name contributors, including Amazon, Zillow, EMC, and others. At Ada, you learn Ruby, Rails, HTML and CSS, JavaScript, Web APIs, CS fundamentals, Git, and Source Control.
While it is a free program, realize that you will still need to cover living expenses and any relocation fees if coming to the Seattle area from elsewhere.
Head back to the table of contents »Check out these 21 awesome places where women can learn to code
2) Hackbright Academy
➡️ Website: hackbrightacademy.com
💻 Courses:
- Software Engineering Program (with full-time, part-time, in-person, and online options)
- Prep Course (part-time, in-person, and online options)
- Online Python 101 (part-time)
- Free Beginner Coding Course
💰 Price:
- $16,895 for the in-person Software Engineering Program
- $12,900 for the online Software Engineering Program
- $249 for the Prep Course
- $499 for Online Python 101
⏰ Duration: 24 weeks (part-time) or 12 weeks (full-time) for Software Engineering Program; 5 weeks for Prep Course and Online Python 101
📍 Location: San Francisco, CA or remote
Hackbright Academy is a female-coders-only developer bootcamp based in San Francisco. They teach Python and have part-time, full-time, in-person, and remote learning offerings. Hackbright also has a part-time evening and weekend prep course that can give you a taste of what life is like for woman coders before committing to the Software Engineering Program.
However, the Hackbright women’s coding bootcamp will cost you a pretty penny. Hackbright is one of the most expensive options for female coders on this list.
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3) Skillcrush
➡️ Website: skillcrush.com
💻 Courses:
- Python for Web Apps & Data
- WordPress Development
- Front End Development
- Front End Development + ReactJS
- User Experience (UX)
- Visual Design
- Digital Marketing
- Break Into Tech Course Package (six courses)
💰 Price:
- Most courses are three monthly payments of $199 or a one-time payment of $549. (So, if you choose to pay in full, you save $48.)
- The Front End Development + ReactJS is four monthly payments of $199 or a one-time payment of $699. (So, if you choose the latter, you save $97.)
- The Break Into Tech Course Package costs $1,599 or 12 monthly payments of $149. (If you choose the latter, you save $189.)
⏰ Duration: 3-4 months for single courses; 6–12 months to complete the Break Into Tech course package (if you work 1-2 hours a day)
📍 Location: Online
Skillcrush offers entirely online learning for women coders and others.
They offer two types of courses. The first are three-month-long courses focused on specific skills. The other is an all-inclusive 6-12 month program. You can also sign up to take their free 10-day bootcamp.
Skillcrush isn’t limited to female coders. They are about empowering all kinds of people from varying backgrounds—spanning nationality as well as gender. While women make up the majority of their student population, other students include people of color, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, people without college degrees, parents, etc. In fact, 21% of Skillcrush students identify as LGBTQ+.
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4) The Grace Hopper Program at Fullstack Academy
➡️ Website: gracehopper.com
💻 Courses: Full-stack JavaScript
💰 Price: $19,910 in total — however, you only pay a $3,000 deposit upfront. The remaining $16,910 is paid in nine monthly installments once you’ve been hired as a full-time software engineer.
⏰ Duration: 17 weeks (4 weeks of remote, part-time pre-work + 13 weeks of full-time, in-person learning).
📍 Location: New York City or Chicago, IL
The Grace Hopper Program at Fullstack Academy is an immersive software engineering course for women+ students (including transgender, genderqueer, and non-binary people).
You can apply for the program at any time, but the admissions process is more rigorous than other coding courses and bootcamps. As part of the admissions process, you’ll have to submit an online coding assessment and participate in a virtual interview with a developer to see if you’re a good fit.
It’s also important to know that the immersive women’s coding bootcamp is not designed for complete beginners. Students should already know the building blocks of coding (loops, conditionals, arrays, objects, functions, etc.).
Check out other similar intensive online courses here.
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Programming Classes and Workshops for Female Coders
5) 23 Code Street
➡️ Website: www.23codestreet.com
💻 Courses & Workshops:
- Web Development Foundations covering HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Git and GitHub, and more
- Friday Lunch Online Masterclass series (hour-long webinars with 30 minutes for audience Q&A, covering topics like open-source development, cloud computing, and more)
💰 Price: £600 for Web Development Foundations; £10 per Masterclass (or £35 for 4, £50 for six)
⏰ Duration: 12 weeks for Web Development Foundations (part-time)
📍 Location: Online
🔗 Follow on Twitter // Instagram
A UK-based coding school for women only, in order to encourage confidence, accessibility, and support in a community of female coders. For every paying student, the organization also teaches an underprivileged woman in India to code. After the course, they offer career counseling and internship opportunities with their partners.
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6) Codebar.io
➡️ Website: codebar.io
💻 Tutorials:
- HTML & CSS
- JavaScript
- Ruby or Python
- Command Line
- Version Control
💰 Price: Free
📍 Location: London, Brighton, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Barcelona, Berlin, New York, remote, and many more.
🗓️ Upcoming events: Join their virtual workshops here.
🔗 Follow on Twitter
Codebar offers free weekly coding workshops for those under-represented in the tech industry—catering primarily towards women coders and those in LGBTQ communities.
Their London and Brighton events typically gather 20-30 women per week to engage in free one-on-one or one-on-two mentoring in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
They also have free learning material online, covering HTML, Version Control, JavaScript and Ruby. Plus, you can join the Codebar community on Slack to get help from other coders and coaches.
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7) Code First Girls
➡️ Website: codefirstgirls.org.uk
💻 Courses:
- Introduction to Web Development
- Introduction to Python Programming
- Introduction to Data Science and SQL Programming
💰 Price: Free
⏰ Duration: Courses last eight weeks and take place for two hours each night, while masterclass workshops typically last two hours.
📍 Location: UK
🗓️ Upcoming events: You can find out more information on their event page here.
🔗 Follow on Twitter // Instagram
Code First Girls is strictly in the UK. (But it sounds like a really cool group; I wish I had this option when I was in college!)
Please note: In order to apply for a course, you must be between the ages of 18 and 23, a current university student, or have been at university in the last two years. You must also identify as female/non-binary and have a working laptop/desktop (desktop machines only for remote courses).
Code First: Girls mainly holds free workshops for girls at college campuses. These classes take place for a few hours a week and last for 4-8 weeks.
The organization has other things going on as well. This past summer they also offered a hack school (a longer-term summer program) for girls. Additionally, Code First: Girls hosts career talks for women interested in getting into the tech industry and runs paid courses for female professionals.
Head back to the table of contents »This amazing list includes 21 organizations in the US (as well as overseas) that teach coding for women!
8) Girl Develop It (GDI)
➡️ Website: girldevelopit.com
💻 Courses: The GDI core curriculum is as follows:
- Intro to Web Concepts
- Intro to HTML/CSS
- Intermediate HTML/CSS
- Intro to JavaScript
- Intro to Angular.js
- Web Accessibility
- Intro to Git/GitHub
- Intro to PHP/MySQL
All chapters teach the core courses at minimum, but at many GDI chapters, you can also find additional courses on widely varying topics like Sass, content strategy, and even SEO.
💰 Price: Varies, depending on the workshop; typically ranges from free to $90
⏰ Duration: Workshop lengths are different from chapter to chapter, but typically last between two and eight hours. Workshops can either be a one-time thing, or involve multiple sessions.
📍 Location: Chapters in five cities: San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Chicago, IL, Detroit, MI, New York, NY
🗓️ Upcoming meetups: You can check out their upcoming events by clicking your preferred city.
🔗 Follow on Twitter // Instagram
GDI offers affordable web-development classes for women learning to code. (However, men can attend if desired.) Some of their events are even free! GDI has chapters across the US, and they just keep on growing! Seriously, every time I head back to their site I see that new chapters have been added.
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9) Ladies Learning Code by Canada Learning Code
➡️ Website: canadalearningcode.ca
💻 Courses & Workshops:
- Digital Drawing
- HTML & CSS
- Video Creation
- WordPress
- Game Design
- And more!
💰 Price: Free
⏰ Duration: 3 to 16 hours
📍 Location: Cities across Canada
🗓️ Upcoming workshops: Find out what schedule and location best suits you by checking out the upcoming events on their homepage.
🔗 Follow on Twitter // Instagram
Ladies Learning Code is a part of Canada Learning Code, an organization that also includes Girls Learning Code, Teens Learning Code, Kids Learning Code, and other groups promoting computer education. As the name implies, Ladies Learning Code is specifically targeted toward women coders.
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10) MotherCoders
➡️ Website: http://www.mothercoders.org/
💻 Course: An introductory technology training program, covering an overview of the tech landscape and basic front-end and web design skills (view sample curriculum here)
💰 Price: With on-site childcare: $4,500. Without on-site childcare: $4,000. (Lunch included with each session.)
⏰ Duration: 8 weeks
📍 Locations: San Francisco Bay Area and New York City. Pilot program launching in Salt Lake City, UT, in 2020.
🗓️ Upcoming events: Check out their upcoming events here.
🔗 Follow on Twitter // Instagram
MotherCoders offers an eight-week tech camp focusing on helping mothers enter tech careers. They provide Saturday and weekday classes with on-site childcare and lunch included. The program focuses most on building a professional network and community support. You’ll also learn basic technical skills and industry knowledge, building a website using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. However, their technical content is more of a starting point for female coders rather than a deep dive into a specialty.
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11) PyLadies
➡️ Website: www.pyladies.com
💻 Workshops: Vary based on location
💰 Price: Free or affordable
📍 Locations: Dozens of locations both inside and outside the US. View the full list here.
🗓️ Upcoming events: Check out your chosen location’s meetup page.
🔗 Follow on Twitter
In the most general sense, PyLadies offers support and networking for women who code in the Python community. It welcomes all levels of programming knowledge, from beginners to seasoned experts.
With PyLadies, the individual groups have a lot of autonomy. Each chapter decides their own workshop topics—or whether to even have workshops. Some groups use a more formal approach with classes, while others prefer hosting social events. Contact your local chapter to learn more about what they offer for female coders in your area.
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12) Rails Girls
➡️ Website: railsgirls.com
💰 Price: Free
📍 Location: Worldwide
🗓️ Upcoming workshops: Check out their upcoming events here.
🔗 Follow on Twitter // Instagram
As the name reflects, Rails Girls is a Ruby-on-Rails-specific coding workshop for girls. Their gatherings generally last one or two days. Boys can attend, but must accompany a girl. (Also, girls are given first priority when registering.)
The organization has events literally all over the world. In fact, a lot of the Rails Girls workshops don’t even take place in the US.
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13) Railsbridge
➡️ Website: railsbridge.org
💻 Workshops:
- Rails
- Frontend
- JavaScript
- Ruby
- CSS
💰 Price: Free
📍 Location: US and some countries outside
🗓️ Upcoming events: Check out their upcoming events in all chapters here.
🔗 Follow on Twitter
RailsBridge is very similar to Rails Girls: it’s a free Ruby on Rails workshop, lasting one or more days in duration.
I attended a RailsBridge workshop in Cambridge, Massachusetts a few years ago. The event was entirely free, including food, beverages, and even childcare. (However, I am not sure if all RailsBridge workshops are like this.) RailsBridge is primarily for women programmers, but guys can attend with a gal, just like Rails Girls. At the event I went to, there were a few guys in the room (but nothing close to the number of girls).
Beyond workshops, RailsBridge has ongoing chapters in some cities. These appear to be primarily study groups.
Head back to the table of contents »Everyone always talks about the lack of women in tech, but it won’t stay that way with all these awesome places for women to learn to code
14) Women Who Code
➡️ Website: https://www.womenwhocode.com/
💻 Courses: No actual courses, but they have a great and LONG list of coding resources, including tutorials, articles, videos, and events.
💰 Price: Events are free or low-cost
⏰ Duration: Varies by event
📍 Location: Worldwide (70+ cities)
🗓️ Upcoming meetups: Check out their upcoming events here.
🔗 Follow on Twitter // Instagram
When you become a member of Women Who Code, you get access to tutorials, articles, videos, and other educational materials for female coders. The nonprofit offers meetup groups and 1,800 events annually around the globe, from hack nights to study groups. Every year, they also give away $1,000,000 in conference tickets and scholarships. Finally, you’ll get to browse employment opportunities on their jobs board.
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15) Django Girls
➡️ Website: djangogirls.org
💻 Workshops: Python and Django
💰 Price: Free
⏰ Duration: Each workshop lasts one day
📍 Location: Worldwide
🗓️ Upcoming events: Check out their upcoming events here.
🔗 Follow on Twitter
Django Girls is a nonprofit that inspires women to fall in love with programming through Python and Django workshops, online tutorials, resources and community support.
According to their website, “During each of our events, 30-60 women build their first web application using HTML, CSS, Python and Django.”
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16) Coffee & Coded
➡️ Website: coffeeandcoded.com
💻 Workshops: Code, design, and entrepreneurship
💰 Price: Free
⏰ Duration: Each workshops lasts one day
📍 Location: New York City
🗓️ Upcoming events: Check out their upcoming events here.
🔗 Follow on Twitter // Instagram
Coffee & Coded is a community founded in 2018 that empowers aspiring women coders to explore technology through skills-based workshops, community events, and classes.
Its mission is “To inspire women to create, code, and challenge assumptions.”
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17) Lesbians Who Tech
➡️ Website: lesbianswhotech.org
💻 Conferences:
💰 Price: Free for virtual summits, $549 – $999 for San Francisco Summit
📍 Location: San Francisco and online
🔗 Follow on Twitter // Instagram
Lesbians Who Tech is a global community of 60,000+ LGBTQ women, trans and non-binary folks, queer women of color, and allies in tech.
Their coding scholarship makes it possible for LGBTQ women and non-binary techies to start a career in tech. They offer scholarships for some of the biggest coding bootcamps. You can get on the interest list now for 2021.
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18) ChickTech
➡️ Website: chicktech.org
💻 Programs:
- Advancing the Careers of Technical Women conference
- ChickTech: High School
- ChickTech: Rural
- ChickTech: College
- Robotics Boot Camps
- Portland Middle School Summer Camp
💰 Price: Most programs are free; Advancing the Careers of Technical Women conference costs $125 to attend
📍 Location: 16 cities in the U.S. and Canada. See the full list here.
🗓️ Upcoming meetups: Check out their upcoming events here.
🔗 Follow on Twitter // Instagram
ChickTech was founded in 2012 to encourage women of all ages to pursue STEM-based careers through tech programs and events.
The ChickTech: High School program, for example, teaches high school girls subjects like robotics, soft circuits, how to build smartphone apps, and 3D printing. For adults, the Advancing the Careers of Technical Women conference helps women in tech find community, inspiration, jobs, and more.
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19) Girls In Tech
➡️ Website: girlsintech.org
💻 Programs: Webinars, courses, bootcamps, and other events
💰 Price: Membership is free
📍 Location: Worldwide. See the full list of locations here.
🗓️ Upcoming meetups: Check out your local chapter to see what’s on the calendar.
🔗 Follow on Twitter // Instagram
Founded in 2007, Girls in Tech is a nonprofit organization that offers its members access to in-person and virtual events, workshops, bootcamps, and courses.
As a member, you can also connect with mentors, check out the exclusive job board, attend hackathons, build up your professional skills, and much more.
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20) Hear Me Code
➡️ Website: hearmecode.com
💻 Courses: Beginner-friendly coding classes. Recently stopped offering in-person courses, but the curriculum and materials are freely available.
💰 Price: Free
📍 Location: Online
🔗 Follow on Twitter
Hear Me Code taught beginner coding classes to 3,000+ women in D.C. between 2013 and 2019. While it no longer offers in-person classes, you find their curriculum and learning resources online.
Lessons are beginner-friendly and focus on practical skills you can apply in the real world. The curriculum consists of five core lessons, including topics like storing information, APIs, reading data, etc., with code samples and exercises.
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Coding Camps & Groups For Girls Under 18
21) Alexa Café
➡️ Website: https://www.idtech.com/alexa-cafe
💻 Programs:
- Virtual Tech Camps
- Game design
- Visual programming
- Development with Java
- Minecraft modding
- Build and code wearable tech
- And more
💰 Price:
- Virtual Tech Camp courses are $399 with code TOGETHER (you save $100).
- Day camp is $949/week
- Overnight camp is $579/week (all meals included)
⏰ Duration: One week (usually Sunday evening-Friday afternoon)
📍 Locations: 15+ locations nationwide
👧 Age Range: Ages 10-15
An all-girls summer camp teaching tech, entrepreneurship, and other skills, along with fun camp-style socialization. The program has locations around the U.S., with day camp, overnight camp and virtual camp options. Students can choose what projects they want to focus on, and can optionally add continuing education units and college advising.
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22) Digital Youth Divas
➡️ Website: digitalyouthnetwork.org/divas
💻 Program: Design-based engineering and computer science
💰 Price: Free
⏰ Duration: 21 weeks
📍 Location: Chicago, IL
👧 Age Range: Middle school girls, ages 11-13
The Digital Youth Divas (DYD) is a blended online and face-to-face program that uses a project-based learning approach to teach STEM topics to middle-school girls — especially those from underrepresented communities.
It teaches girl programmers technology, computer science and engineering fundamentals through a framework of design projects, narrative stories, an online social network platform, and a community of peers and mentors.
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23) Black Girls Code
➡️ Website: blackgirlscode.com
💻 Workshops:
- Java
- Mobile App Development
- Build a Game in a Day
💰 Price: Varies depending on the workshop (some are free!)
📍 Location: Cities across US
👧 Age Range: 7 to 17 years old
🗓️ Upcoming events: You can register on their website here.
🔗 Follow on Twitter // Instagram
Since launching in 2011, Black Girls Code has hosted multiple hackathons and learning expos across the country. The events primarily take place in large US cities such as Brooklyn, Chicago, Las Vegas, Memphis and others. Their events always happen on one day and generally last the full day, from 10 a.m. to 4 or 5 p.m. Virtual events typically last one or two hours.
According to the founder, Black Girls Code provides: “young and pre-teen girls of color opportunities to learn in-demand skills in technology and computer programming at a time when they are naturally thinking about what they want to be when they grow up.”
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24) Tech Scholars Online
➡️ Website: www.nyhistory.org/education/teen-programs/scholars-program
💻 Courses:
- Web design
- App building
- Video game development
💰 Price: Courses are offered on a pay-what-you-want basis (the suggested full price is $150 for those with the ability)
📍 Location: Online
👩 Age Range: High school students, grades 9–12
🗓️ Upcoming events: View all their upcoming events here.
Tech Scholars Online teaches high-school girls to code online in a supportive, all-girl environment. Courses are taught by experienced women computer programmers and students get the chance to be mentored by influential women in the tech field. Any student who self-identifies as a girl is welcomed.
Courses include hands-on projects, group work, and collaboration. Plus, students will learn about under-told stories of women in STEM throughout history.
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25) Girls Who Code (GWC)
➡️ Website: girlswhocode.com
💻 Courses: Computer Science Education in summer immersion programs and after-school clubs
💰 Price: Free
⏰ Duration: Two weeks for the virtual summer immersion program and 1-2 hours per week for the after-school club
📍 Location: Several cities across the US, such as Boston, New York, Austin, and Seattle (see the full list of locations here)
👩 Age Range: Sophomores or juniors in high school (summer program) or 6th-12th grade girls (clubs)
🔗 Follow on Twitter // Instagram
Girls Who Code is a US-based organization that has been featured across news outlets as a voice promoting girls in technology. GWC has three kinds of code-for-girls programs: their summer immersion program, an after-school program, and 2-week day programs held at high schools and universities.
Their summer coding camp for girls is full-time and lasts for two weeks. It is strictly for girls in their current sophomore or junior year of high school, and combines instruction with mentorship.
To learn more about the Girls Who Code experience, check out Bernice’s story. She attended the 2014 GWC summer immersion program in Boston and has since started a GWC after-school club.
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26) TechGirlz
➡️ Website: techgirlz.org
💻 Courses: Workshops and Summer Camps
- HTML & CSS
- Linux
- SQL databases
- Python
- Game Design
- And more
💰 Price: Free for the workshops, $250 for the camp (partial scholarships are available too)
📍 Location: Predominantly eastern Pennsylvania and online
👧 Age Range: Middle school (6th-9th grade)
🗓️ Upcoming workshops: Check out their upcoming events here.
🔗 Follow on Twitter // Instagram
TechGirlz is a non-profit organization primarily based in the Philadelphia area. However, they have “TechShopz” that take place around the US.
TechGirlz events are always completely free of charge and cater to middle-school girls specifically, although younger girls do sometimes attend. TechShopz usually occur on a Saturday afternoon for a few hours. Instruction topics differ, but include everything from Scratch and Raspberry Pi to building video games.
With so many options out there teaching programming for women, it should be a breeze to find resources in your area to help you learn as an aspiring woman coder. Even if you live in the middle of nowhere, miles from a city, that’s what online coding workshops are for! So what are you waiting for!? Check out one of these groups for female coders TODAY!There’s no excuse to NOT learn how to code, thanks to these awesome places teaching coding for women!
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Note: there are affiliate links in this post.
Source: https://learntocodewith.me/posts/13-places-women-learn-code/
