This is not a zero-sum game. Creating a new opportunity for girls does not remove an existing opportunity for a boy.
> But at least to me it seems that mostly boys (with few exceptions) seem to love doing this - in particular from young age on
Maybe you should try talking to more girls and asking them what they are interested in.
> This is not a zero-sum game. Creating a new opportunity for girls does not remove an existing opportunity for a boy.
Not when quotas are involved. In Germany, where I live, every few years serious attempts to introduce women quota for companies are attempted to pass as a law (which typically are only prevented in the last moment because of massive protests of business associations).
Since Januar 2016 gender quotas for the supervisory council of the 106 largest market-listed companies were introduced. For restaffing in the supervisory council there is a quota of 30% for both gender (or the position has to be left vacant).
Wikipedia link:
> https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Frauenquote&oldid...
Here a Reuters article about the topic:
> http://web.archive.org/web/20160619090749/http://de.reuters....
Here an "official" article by the Federal Minestry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth ["Federal Minestry for everybody except men" ;-) ]:
> https://www.bmfsfj.de/bmfsfj/themen/gleichstellung/frauen-un...
Head count is orthogonal to gender make up of the company
You are not inoculated from the past sins of gender discrimination. So simply because you did not discriminate does not mean you did not benefit from past discrimination. While this fact should not be used to hold you accountable, it should be used to pursue policies that offset that advantage.
A company offering a program for girls is not punishing boys. It's giving girls a boost that was given to boys of previous generations.
Simply giving equal opportunity after decades (longer, really) of inequality is not truly equal. As an analogy, imagine if a government gave extremely preferential treatment to one company over another for an extended period of time (lower taxes, looser regulation, etc.) and all of the sudden started treating the two companies the same. Would you expect them to have an equal chance of success? Surely the accumulated benefits of the one company would still provide a significant advantage that would have to be remedied before the companies have an equal chance of success.
Edit: I realize I assumed you are male, which your comment does not state. Mea culpa. Read this comment as directed at any male who opposes policies that promote gender equality in STEM education.
So you tolerate that a complete sex shall be punished for former sins. Clearly not my sense of justice.
> In a world where boys and girls are given the same opportunities at (even) younger ages, you wouldn't need something like this.
Everybody can use the internet to learn coding. But at least to me it seems that mostly boys (with few exceptions) seem to love doing this - in particular from young age on.