Paper Info
Title
The Intersection of Being Black and Being a Woman: Examining the Effect of Social Computing Relationships on Computer Science Career Choice
Abstract
Computer science (CS) has been identified as one of the fastest-growing professions, with demand for CS professionals far outpacing the supply of CS graduates. The necessity for a trained CS workforce has compelled industry and academia to evaluate strategies for broadening participation in CS. The current literature in CS education emphasizes the importance of social relationships and supports for individuals from underrepresented groups. Unfortunately, this literature has largely been limited to either the exploration of issues of women or that of underrepresented racial/ethnic groups. These limited views generalize characteristics of specific underrepresented groups without considering intersections between these groups. This quantitative study (n = 3,206) addressed that shortcoming by leveraging inferential statistical methods to examine (i) the similarities and differences between the social CS-related experiences of Black women, Black men, and non-Black women in the United States; (ii) the relationship between these experiences and CS career choices; and (iii) the activities during which significant social experiences might occur. The results indicate that Black women's social experiences are often different from the experiences of both Black men and non-Black women. In particular, both Black men and non-Black women had more CS friends than Black women, whereas having these friends was more significant for the CS career choice for Black women. Introductions to CS in school, before college, were negatively related to career choice for all groups, whereas home support was positive for both Black women and men. This work suggests that considering intersectionality is important to understanding the needs of different individuals, as well as the importance of social supports for persistence in CS.
Year
DOI
Venue
2020
10.1145/3377426
ACM Transactions on Computing Education
Keywords
DocType
Volume
Race,ethnicity,gender,intersectionality
Journal
20
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
2
1946-6226
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
0
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Monique Ross101.01
Zahra Hazari232.11
Gerhard Sonnert301.01
Philip M. Sadler400.68