Hacking their way into a male-dominated industry

A few years ago, Nicki Klein and Melissa Hargis were two young women in search of careers that challenged and inspired them. Then they caught the coding bug and found what they’d been yearning for.

Undaunted by the prospect of competing in a heavily male-dominated field, the pair are now hoping to take their fledgling company to the next level, fueled by a can-do attitude, a lot of late-night and weekend coding marathons, and a healthy dose of girl power.

Klein is a Newport Beach native who graduated in 2008 from Corona del Mar High School and went on to earn degrees in psychology and linguistics from UCLA. Afterward, she took a few detours in the working world, but nothing seemed to be clicking.

Hargis, a married mother of a toddler daughter, hails from Texas and studied computer science at the University of Texas at Arlington before transferring to Purdue University to study Spanish. In 2007, she packed up “on a whim,” moved to the San Diego area and landed a teaching post at Cal State San Marcos.

Both women had felt the tug of another calling, something that would involve creativity and problem-solving. And that’s how they ended up meeting two years ago at an intensive computer coding boot camp in Los Angeles, where Klein now lives. Over 20 weekends they learned to build computer applications from scratch, an intense and stressful experience that not all of their classmates felt equipped to finish.

But Klein and Hargis reveled in the work, and after finishing they signed up to compete in a hackathon at Techweek Los Angeles in November 2014. They enlisted a few of their fellow boot camp students to join them on an all-women team — virtually unheard of in the world of coding — to develop an app in 24 hours. They walked away with second place out of a field of about 20 teams, an achievement that gave them what the pair describe as “a lot of street cred.”

They’ve since formed their own company, Shortkey, competed in more hackathons — using prize money to help finance their startup — and thrown themselves into getting their new venture off the ground. Hargis quit her job to devote herself to their coding business, and Klein recently reduced her hours at her computer-programming position.

The ambition of these two entrepreneurs is that much more noteworthy because they face the added challenge of fighting to be taken seriously in a field overwhelmingly geared toward and run by men.

It’s an imbalance that runs deep, according to such groups as the non-profit Girls Who Code. Strangely, opportunities for women in tech have actually worsened. Girls Who Code states that in 1984, 37% of all computer science graduates were women, but today that ratio is just 18%. What’s more, it says, only 20% of Advanced Placement computer science test-takers are female, and less than 1% of high school girls express interest in computer science majors.

Reports on the issue cite a variety of reasons why young women seem discouraged, including a culture that almost exclusively encourages boys to play with toys and games that foster math and computing skills; a dearth of female mentors and role models in the field; and a business environment that perpetuates the image of programmers as geeky tech guys.

It’s a big and growing field that women are largely missing. Girls Who Code notes that by 2020 there will be 1.4 million computer specialist job openings, according to U.S. Department of Labor statistics, and to reach gender parity by then women must fill half of those jobs.

That’s highly unlikely to happen, but there are some indications of change. For instance, Stanford last fall reported that computer science had become its most popular major among women.

And it’s at least encouraging that women like Klein and Hargis are ignoring industry stereotypes and forging ahead with equal doses of intelligence and moxie.

“Women in this field hardly exist,” said Hargis. “We want to buck that cliche.”

So far, they’ve noticed a few other women sprinkled among their competitors at hackathons, but they’ve encountered no other all-women teams. Yet instead of hiding their other-ness, they proudly flaunt their femininity. They’ve taken to dressing in costumes — onesie pajamas, cheerleading outfits — ensuring that they stand out against what can be hundreds of rival teams at these events.

What’s more, the first app they developed, Chorbit, which allows mobile users to find the most efficient routes for running errands at multiple destinations, has a decidedly feminine appeal. An example they used in competition was a search for beer, tampons and chocolate.

They’re now aiming to launch their second app next month, and are hoping that 2016 turns out to be a pivotal year. They’ve begun drawing attention from the press and even a documentary film company, and at one upcoming event they’re shooting for a spot in a tech incubator.

It’s a start, and I wish Klein and Hargis well on their journey. And maybe, if they prove successful, they’ll inspire some young girls to pick up the tech torch and continue to prove that computer programming should no longer be considered off limits for women.

PATRICE APODACA is a former Newport-Mesa public school parent and former Los Angeles Times staff writer. She lives in Newport Beach.