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1. The Danger of a Single Story: A Critical and Holistic Account of Rachel’s Experience in Computing for Broadening Participation

   Kumar, N.; Secules, S. (June 2023, American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference: Equity Culture and Social Justice in Education Division)

   There has been a decline in the graduation rate of women in computing since 1984 [2]. Calls to broaden the participation of women have corresponded to funding initiatives, such as the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) program [3]. As the scholarly community takes up these calls and justifies their work, they tell stories about the problem, the solution, and most importantly, the people involved with broadening participation. Here we review some of those stories as represented by major trends in scholarly literature. 

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2. The Danger of a Single Story: A Critical and Holistic Account of Rachel’s Experience in Computing for Broadening Participation

   Kumar, N.; Secules, S. (June 2023, American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference: Equity Culture and Social Justice in Education Division)

   There has been a decline in the graduation rate of women in the computing fields since 1984 [2]. Calls to broaden the participation women have corresponded to funding initiatives, such as the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) program [3]. As the scholarly community takes up these calls and justifies their work, they tell stories about the problem, the solution, and most importantly, the people involved with broadening participation. Here we review some of those stories as represented by major trends in scholarly literature. 

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3. Examining the role of computing identity in the computing experiences of women and racially minoritized undergraduates: a literature review

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-023-09375-0  

   Clarke, Nagash; Mondisa, Joi-Lynn; Packard, Becky Wai-Ling; Queener Schemanske, Carin; Tuladhar, Anu; Gosha, Kinnis (May 2023, Journal of Computing in Higher Education)

   This paper offers a synthesis on computing identity and the experiences of women and minoritized populations in computing and computer science in higher education. Examining computing identity and its role in the computing experiences of minoritized undergraduates can help us better understand ways to engage and support women and minoritized individuals in the computing field thus increasing participation and persistence of these groups in computing. In this article, we present a review of research literature on computing identity within the experiences of women and minoritized undergraduate students in computing. The research questions guiding this work are: (1) What research literature exists about computing identity?, (2) According to existing literature, what are the experiences of women and racially minoritized undergraduates in computing (e.g., persons who identify as Black, Hispanic/Latinx, Indigenous people)?, and (3) What theoretical frameworks are used to guide existing computing identity literature? Emergent themes include the need to focus on exposure to computing, persistence, career expectations, and engagement. While there is no consensus on a computer identity framework, there is research guided by social cognitive career theory, social identity theory, and practice theory. We conclude that computing identity, including its multiple conceptualizations, offers multiple opportunities for informing and broadening participation of minoritized populations in computing. Future research should include further conceptual exploration of computing identity. 

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4. Tracing Participation Beyond Computing Careers: How Women Reflect on Their Experiences in Computing Programs

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3582564  

   Perez, Melissa; Garcia, Patricia (June 2023, ACM Transactions on Computing Education)

   Norms and values in computing education are constantly changing as dominant narratives about the role of computing in society evolve over time. Within the current evolving landscape of computing education, researchers and practitioners have advocated for ensuring people from all backgrounds, and particularly women, non-binary, and Black, Indigenous, and Latinx people, are able to participate equitably within the field of computing. Yet, the values of computing educational experiences are narrowly framed within career outcomes, such as securing a career in computing, leaving many important experiences and ways of participating in the field out of the picture. To address this, we conducted reflective interviews with women who participated in broadening participation in computing (BPC) programs to understand their perceptions of computing and how it aligns (or not) with what they value about their experiences in computing learning environments. We investigate the following research questions: (1) How do women who participated in BPC programs describe their perceptions of computing? (2) How do those perceptions align or misalign with the program outcomes they valued? The findings from our study call attention to tensions arising from centering “computing careers” in BPC work and highlight the outcomes of participation valued by the women in our study, such as developing communities and relationships, gaining communication skills, and expanding perspectives on skills computer scientists should possess. 

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5. Retaining Black Women in Computing: A Comparative Analysis of Interventions for Computing Persistence

   https://doi.org/10.1145/3635313  

   Fisk, Susan R; Watts, Brittany; Dress, Courtney; Lee, Charlotte; Rorrer, Audrey; McKlin, Tom; Barnes, Tiffany; Payton, Jamie (June 2024, ACM Transactions on Computing Education)

   Black women remain severely underrepresented in computing despite ongoing efforts to diversify the field. Given that Black women exist at the intersection of both racial and gendered identities, tailored approaches are necessary to address the unique barriers Black women face in computing. However, it is difficult to quantitatively evaluate the efficacy of interventions designed to retain Black women in computing, since samples of computing students typically contain too few Black women for robust statistical analysis. Using about a decade of student survey responses from an National Science Foundation–funded Broadening Participation in Computing alliance, we use regression analyses to quantitatively examine the connection between different types of interventions and Black women’s intentions to persist in computing and how this compares to other students (specifically, Black men, white women, and white men). This comparison allows us to quantitatively explore how Black women’s needs are both distinct from—and similar to—other students. We find that career awareness and faculty mentorship are the two interventions that have a statistically significant, positive correlation with Black women’s computing persistence intentions. No evidence was found that increasing confidence or developing skills/knowledge was correlated with Black women’s computing persistence intentions, which we posit is because Black women must be highly committed and confident to pursue computing in college. Last, our results suggest that many efforts to increase the number of women in computing are focused on meeting the needs of white women. While further analyses are needed to fully understand the impact of complex intersectional identities in computing, this large-scale quantitative analysis contributes to our understanding of the nuances of Black women’s needs in computing. 

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