Mariéme Jamme

The woman building an army of female coders, one line at a time.

Founder of iamtheCODE Mariéme Jamme is on a mission: training an army of women – one million in fact – to code by 2030. Her organisation gives women equal opportunities in tech through digital clubs, public “hackathons” and mentorship. It encourages governments and businesses to invest in women, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. So far, iamtheCODE has worked with over 14,000 women and girls. It’s a global initiative but the focus is Africa, which has the youngest population in the world.

Jamme believes that your background need not define your future. At 13, she was trafficked from Senegal to Paris as a prostitute and lived in an underground station for three years before being moved to a rescue centre. With no formal education, she taught herself how to read and write. At the age of 18, she moved to the UK and used daily library visits to teach herself how to code.

In 2016 just 5% of leadership positions in tech were held by women. The future talent pipeline also skews heavily male. A Girls Who Code study found 74% of young girls expressed interest in STEM fields, but later in life – perhaps as the gender gap becomes apparent – this interest wanes: PWC reports that a mere 3% of female students in the UK said a career in tech would be their first choice.

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Image credit: Piero Zagami and Michela Nicchiotti.