Closing the tech gender gap: New contest seeks to make waves in male-dominated industry

Lesley Chard has been coding since she was nine years old.

She credits her father, a high school tech teacher, with giving her the freedom to learn through play — despite the painful consequences.

"I don't know how many times my dad had to format the computer because I had screwed it up to the point of no return," Chard says.

Now she wants to share the opportunities she had with other youth in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Chard is part of the team of female technology professionals behind Digital Waves, a new contest that aims to narrow the gender gap in the province's technology sector.

Digital Waves bills itself as a "digital skills experience" for female and non-binary teenagers, offering virtual workshops in app design and entrepreneurship.

It offers exactly "the steps that app designers and entrepreneurs go through to get a business off the ground," Chard says.