I'm happy that so many people sound keen. I think this field has got so much potential for women as it's perfect for freelance/ PT/ flexible working. It was my SIL who did the course, she did it through this company "General Assembly" and said she enjoyed it. She got her first job within a few weeks of it finishing, charged £15 an hour, and made about £1000 over 2 weeks (which my brother seems to think was low and she should have asked for £20p/h):
generalassemb.ly/education/learn-html-css-web-design-online
My brother taught himself from a book many years ago and now does "back end" development - making stuff function behind the scenes basically. I'm teaching myself from online resources and want to get into "front end" development like SIL - so more about designing stuff and making it look nice. SIL said the course was great if you want a tutor to give you guidance, and they also built up a portfolio for her to job hunt with I think, but it's quite expensive and my brother said there's no actual content in the course that can't be self-taught if you feel confident enough to just get stuck in. I started out with CSS and HTML which are quite accessible (intuitive, lots of visual feedback etc) and then moved onto Javascript when I felt more confident. The resources I've been using are:
Codecademy: It's got free basic tutorials and also a paid "pro" option but I've only used the free version. It's a good structured place to get started. www.codecademy.com/
W3Schools: Like a tutorial and reference guide in one. Also has an option to get certificates. www.w3schools.com/
MDN: Like W3Schools but more reference than tutorial - more comprehensive. developer.mozilla.org/en-US/
Codepen: An online free code "playground" where you can literally just have a go without needing to do any set up first. You can also browse other peoples "pens" to get inspiration. codepen.io/
Visual Studio Code: A free code editor you can download to write and save your own code. Makes coding quicker and has an autocomplete setting which makes things easier when you're getting started. code.visualstudio.com/
Youtube! I try and do a few hours coding each day while the kids are napping/ in bed but if I'm too tired I watch tutorials on Youtube. This guy is really good I think - lots of "crash course for beginners" stuff. www.youtube.com/user/DesignCourse
Sarah Drasner: Ok, she's not a learning resource exactly, she's a senior developer at microsoft, but this is still quite a male heavy field and she's just an incredible bad ass coder and also really beautiful and feminine and just my all time "woman who codes" icon. Whenever I feel defeated I watch her videos and get inspired again.
So yeh, do it. It can be overwhelming or daunting at first but push on through and it starts to make sense and is loads of fun. I've been doing it for 4 months now, and my brother thinks I'm almost at the point that I could apply for junior developer jobs or look for freelance work (though I'm not going to start applying for another 6 months or so as my youngest is still to little).
Feel free to pm me anyone who wants more info.