Of all the programmers in the world, only 19% are women. However, this doesn't mean that they can't code. Most of the foundation of computer sciences were laid by women programmers. The decline is cultural and we at hackerearth wanted to even the odds stacked up against women in technology through a woman only hackathon.

1. International Women’s Day Hackathon
CaseStudy
HackerEarth successfully conducted a women
only online hackathon on international women’s
day, to encourage and celebrate women in tech.
This Hackathon attracted over 10,000 women
programmers from over 35 different countries,
who built over 2000 applications, in a span of 3
days.
Why a women only Hackathon?
Women representation in the technology industry is at a 23 year low.
Since 1983, when the distribution was almost equal, it has come down
to 27%, as of 2015. The percentage of women programmers is even
lesser- an abysmal 19%. This is particularly worrisome, as a lot of the
foundational work in the early days of computer programming were
women. However owing to multiple socio-economic reasons, there has
been a gradual decrease in the representation of women in tech.
HackerEarth is one of the largest community of programmers in the
world and the gender distribution was similar in our community too.
This had to change and we wanted to do our part. Women in tech need
to be encouraged and celebrated. Budding women in tech need more
role models to look up to. To even these odds, HackerEarth conducted a
women only Hackathon.
The Support
HackerEarth’s initiative was well received by everyone we approached.
The International Women’s Day Hackathon was backed by some of the
biggest names in the tech industry. The support was led by Snapdeal
and @WalmartLabs, followed by Harman, Altimetrik, ThoughtWorks,
Akamai, SanDisk, Capillary, HCL, AT&T, Freshdesk, Persistent, Vmware
and Practo.
The initiative was also backed by some of the largest programming com-
munities and media outlets in the world. 10000 Startups, Mozilla, Ban-
galore JS, Apache CloudStack, BlrDroid, FollowHer, Scrollback, Map-
plinks and Business Standard, all extended their support to the event.
The Hackathon should bring to-
gether as many women program-
mers as possible to participate in
the hackathon.
It should be large enough to make
budding women programmers
from all parts of the world take
notice.
It should be backed by major stake-
holders in the tech ecosystem to
add credibility to the initiative.
It should produce useful products,
which can serve as a showcase that
women are not inferior to their op-
posite gender with respect to
coding skills.
The Objective
HackerEarth

2. Outreach and promotions
The basic ingredients of the Hackathon was ready- there were set
themes (productivity, social welfare, fun/gamification and retail), it was
backed by top companies and communities. There was a strong moral
and material incentive to take part in the challenge; Along with coding
for eradicating gender bias, Apple products were up for grabs- Macbook
Air, iPad Air and iPhone 6 for the top 3 participants. The next challenge
lay in promotion of the event.
The Result
Theme Wise Submissions
Total No of
Participants
Total No of
Submissions
Individual
Participation
Team
Participation
8130 1747
7366 746
72
28
SOCIAL
WELFARE
PRODUCTIVITY
38% 32%
67
33
TOTAL NO OF
REGISTRATIONS
10,126
WEB
MOBILE
78
22
FUN/
GAMIFICATION
MULTI CHANNEL
RETAIL
13% 17%
82
18
WEB
MOBILE
A comprehensive marketing plan was laid out and executed for
promoting the women Hackathon. The efforts were as follows -
Targeted Facebook and Google Ads to women programmers
Targeted Internal and community mailers to women pro-
grammers
PR outreach to all major publications
Internal company mailers to all women programmers by
sponsoring companies
College outreach through partnering institutes of
HackerEarth
Content marketing push
Social media outreach from HackerEarth properties
In event promotions- Twitter promotions
Offline outreach- Radio ads and billboards
Organic Facebook, Google plus and twitter outreach to
women groups and influencers

3. Years of Experience
0 YEARS1105
3- 5 YEARS
1- 3 YEARS
5+ YEARS
India - 85% I US - 9% I Others*- 3%
46%
29%
12%
14%
946
2339
3740
Countrywise Submissions
33
PARTICIPANT SELFIES
DURING THE HACKATHON

4. Post event engagement
The results of the Hackathon were announced 4 weeks after the com-
pletion of the Hackathon. 2000 submissions were evaluated and ranked
based on usability, design, impact of the solution and concept.
Top 30 winners were invited to an offline conference in Bangalore to
attend 5 hours of keynotes and panel discussions addressing the prob-
lems faced by women in tech and solutions to encourage more women
to take up tech skills and jobs.
The Impact
With this Hackathon, HackerEarth has pulled off a world record with
respect to participation. It was wide spread and even garnered partici-
pations from countries like Iran and Fiji Islands. Over 2000 working ap-
plications were built over a span of 3 days.
HackerEarth will further engage with the winners of this Hackathon in
various activities through the course of the year to serve as encourage-
ment and role models for other women in tech. We will leverage the
success of this hackathon, until the next year, for the second edition of
the International Women’s Day Hackathon.

5. WOMEN LOVE CODING