When Nunung Nurul Qomariyah enrolled in her Computer Science degree, more than two decades ago, she was surprised by the small women representative in the sector. She has always believed that this sector is appealing to women: no fieldwork, no carrying rolls of blueprints late into the night, you just need a desk and a screen.
“I was shocked,” recalls Nunung Nurul Qomariyah or many would call her Nurul, who is now a lecturer in the Department of Computer Science International Program at Binus University in Jakarta. She noticed that from the workforce to now in academia, the number of women in the industry became smaller and smaller. “I kept asking myself: why?”
This question became a catalyst and driving force to create SheCodes Society, a leadership and coding bootcamp Nurul co-founded to help young women across Indonesia find their footing in a field that too often overlooks them.
"Women graduating from STEM at undergraduate level are almost equal in number to men, maybe 51 to 49," Nurul explains. "But when they enter the industry, they're afraid. They're afraid they can't balance a career with family responsibilities. They're afraid they can't compete in a field so dominated by men. So they leave."
SheCodes Society addresses this not by teaching more code, but by building the leadership skills that allow women to stay and thrive. They learn public speaking, storytelling, project management, and most importantly, the self-belief to lead.
This lesson that she passed on through SheCodes Society was mainly learned from her time in the UK, studying at the University of York. Nurul describes her time there as fundamentally reshaping how she thinks about education, achievement, and worth.
"I realised that education isn't just about exam scores. In the UK, especially at PhD level, everything is about quality. Your work is assessed by an external examiner who doesn't know you. You defend your research alone. There are no grades, no coursework to fall back on. You either demonstrate the depth of your thinking, or you don't," said Nurul.
That emphasis on character over credentials is visible through SheCodes Society programmes: less lecture, more space to discover what you are genuinely capable of.
As a UK alumni, she also came across a very valuable network, especially once she engaged with The British Council. Through this network, she draws fellow researchers for events and collaborations in her field. For example, she invited Dr. Aishah Prastowo, who studied at University of Oxford, to inspire her SheCodes participants in Yogjakarta.
Nurul was also selected by The British Council to receive their UK Alumni Social Action Grant. With this support, she made the bold decision to expand her programme from university level to reach students at secondary school, when they are still deciding who they want to become.
"This is the age when they're still figuring out their direction," she says. "If we can reach them now, before they've already decided that tech isn't for them, that's where the real change can happen."
