Reaching Black Women Interested in Computing: The Importance of Organizational Ties
Authors: 
Bailey Brown, Rebecca Zarch, Amanda Menier, Talia Goldwasser, Megean Garvin, Celeste Lee, Jayce Warner, Tamara PearsonAuthors Info & Claims
Bailey Brown, Rebecca Zarch, Amanda Menier, Talia Goldwasser, Megean Garvin, Celeste Lee, Jayce Warner, Tamara PearsonAuthors Info & ClaimsPages 151 - 157
Abstract
Although it is well known that Black women are underrepresented in computing, less is known about their pre-college experiences. We hypothesize that inequities at the K-12 level result in Black women's underrepresentation in computing, because Black women have accumulated less social capital and are less embedded in courses and organizations related to computing prior to college. This paper reports the initial findings from the first round of a survey designed to gather the pre-college computing experiences of Black women and their peers. Black women in our sample were less likely to report participating in formal computer science (CS) education in school, slightly more likely to report participation in outside-of-school computing programs, about equally as likely to pursue computing experiences independently, and more likely to have had no pre-college computing experiences at all. We found that Black women were less likely to report that they were told they would be a good computer scientist, especially by friends, teachers, and guidance counselors, thus reflecting weaker social connections and lower levels of social capital. These findings suggest that organizational embeddedness or social ties from pre-college computing experiences may indeed be a factor in Black women's underrepresentation in computing and that access to these experiences outside of the formal classroom may be particularly important. The survey is one part of a study that will feature a second round of data collection in another state, analysis of state-level longitudinal data, and interviews with Black women.
References
[1]
2016. Diversity gaps in computer science: Exploring the underrepresentation of girls, Blacks and Hispanics. Technical Report. Google Inc. and Gallup Inc. http
[2]
2016. Trends in the state of computer science in US K-12 schools. Technical Report. Google Inc. and Gallup Inc. http://goo.gl/j291E0
[3]
C Alvarado, G Umbelino, andMMinnes. 2018. The persistent effect of pre-college computing experience on college CS course grades. In Proceedings of the 49th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. 876--881.
[4]
Trista A Beard. 2021. Emerging social capital in the lives of Latinx first-generation college students: The case for "apprentice agents" in a social capital framework. Journal of First-Generation Student Success 1, 2 (2021), 92--110.
[5]
Julia Bryan, Cheryl Moore-Thomas, Norma L Day-Vines, and Cheryl Holcomb- McCoy. 2011. School counselors as social capital: The effects of high school college counseling on college application rates. Journal of Counseling & Development 89, 2 (2011), 190--199.
[6]
RS Burt. 1997. The contingent value of social capital. Administrative Science Quarterly 42, 2 (1997), 339--365.
[7]
Wendy Cavendish, Deborah Perez, and Lydia Ocasio-Stoutenburg. 2022. Lifting as you climb: social capital development through aspirational peer mentoring. Education and Urban Society (2022).
[8]
J. McGrath Cohoon. 2002. Recruiting and Retaining Women in Undergraduate Computing Majors. SIGCSE Bull. 34, 2 (2002), 48--52.
[9]
James S Coleman. 1988. Social capital in the creation of human capital. Amer. J. Sociology 94 (1988), S95--S120.
[10]
Ann Coles. 2012. The Role of Community-Based Organizations in the College Access and Success Movement. Research to Practice Brief. Pathways to College Network (2012).
[11]
Erin York Cornwell and Benjamin Cornwell. 2008. Access to expertise as a form of social capital: An examination of race-and class-based disparities in network ties to experts. Sociological Perspectives 51, 4 (2008), 853--876.
[12]
AB Cox. 2017. Cohorts, "siblings," and mentors: Organizational structures and the creation of social capital. Sociology of Education 90, 1 (2017), 47--63.
[13]
Robert Crosnoe. 2004. Social capital and the interplay of families and schools. Journal of Marriage and Family 66, 2 (2004), 267--280.
[14]
Amanda Datnow and Robert Cooper. 1997. Peer networks of African American students in independent schools: Affirming academic success and racial identity. Journal of Negro Education (1997), 56--72.
[15]
SL Dika and K Singh. 2002. Applications of social capital in educational literature: A critical synthesis. Review of Educational Research 72, 1 (2002), 31--60.
[16]
Paul DiMaggio and Filiz Garip. 2012. Network effects and social inequality. Annual Review of Sociology 38 (2012), 93--118.
[17]
Julia C Duncheon and Stefani R Relles. 2019. Brokering college opportunity for first-generation youth: The role of the urban high school. American Educational Research Journal 56, 1 (2019), 146--177.
[18]
Sheena Erete, Yolanda A Rankin, and Jakita O Thomas. 2021. I can't breathe: Reflections from Black women in CSCW and HCI. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction 4, CSCW3 (2021), 1--23.
[19]
LD Erickson, S McDonald, and GH Elder Jr. 2009. Informal mentoring and educational attainment: Compensatory or complementary resources. Sociology of Education 82, 4 (2009), 1328--1347.
[20]
Raquel L Farmer-Hinton. 2008. Social capital and college planning: Students of color using school networks for support and guidance. Education and Urban Society 41, 1 (2008), 127--157.
[21]
Roberto Fernandez and David Harris. 1992. Social Isolation and the Underclass. The Urban Institute Press, Washington, D.C., 257--294.
[22]
Allan Fisher and Jane Margolis. 2002. Unlocking the clubhouse: The Carnegie Mellon experience. SIGCSE Bull. 34, 2 (2002), 79--83.
[23]
Mark S. Granovetter. 1973. The strength of weak ties. Amer. J. Sociology 78, 6 (1973), 1360--1380.
[24]
MM Holland. 2012. Only here for the day: The social integration of minority students at a majority white high school. Soc of Education 85, 2 (2012), 101--120.
[25]
Megan M Holland. 2015. Trusting each other: Student-counselor relationships in diverse high schools. Sociology of Education 88, 3 (2015), 244--262.
[26]
Erin McNamara Horvat, Elliot B Weininger, and Annette Lareau. 2003. From social ties to social capital: Class differences in the relations between schools and parent networks. American educational research Journal 40, 2 (2003), 319--351.
[27]
Integrated Postsecondary Educ Data System (IPEDS). 2021. Completions. https: //nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/InstitutionByName.aspx Accessed: 2023-07--21.
[28]
Glenn D Israel, Lionel J Beaulieu, and Glen Hartless. 2001. The influence of family and community social capital on educational achievement. Rural sociology 66, 1 (2001), 43--68.
[29]
Anthony Abraham Jack. 2014. Culture shock revisited: The social and cultural contingencies to class marginality. In Sociological Forum, Vol. 29. Wiley Online Library, 453--475.
[30]
Anthony Abraham Jack. 2016. (No) harm in asking: Class, acquired cultural capital, and academic engagement at an elite university. Sociology of Education 89, 1 (2016), 1--19.
[31]
Anthony M Johnson. 2019. "I can turn it on when I need to": Pre-college integration, culture, and peer academic engagement among Black and Latino/a engineering students. Sociology of Education 92, 1 (2019), 1--20.
[32]
Adrianna Kezar. 2011. Organizational culture and its impact on partnering between community agencies and postsecondary institutions to help low-income students attend college. Education and Urban Society 43, 2 (2011), 205--243.
[33]
Rory Kramer. 2008. Diversifiers at elite schools. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race 5, 2 (2008), 287--307.
[34]
Colleen M. Lewis and Niral Shah. 2015. How equity and inequity can emerge in pair programming. In Proc. of the Eleventh Annual International Conference on International Computing Education Research (Omaha, Nebraska, USA) (ICER '15). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 41--50.
[35]
Nan Lin. 2002. Social capital: A theory of social structure and action. Vol. 19. Cambridge university press.
[36]
Allison Master, Andrew N. Meltzoff, and Sapna Cheryan. 2021. Gender stereotypes about interests start early and cause gender disparities in computer science and engineering. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118, 48 (2021).
[37]
LS McCallen and HL Johnson. 2020. The role of institutional agents in promoting higher education success among first-generation college students at a public urban university. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education 13, 4 (2020), 320.
[38]
Melissa M McDonald, Virgil Zeigler-Hill, Jennifer K Vrabel, and Martha Escobar. 2019. A single-item measure for assessing STEM identity. In Frontiers in Education, Vol. 4. Frontiers, 78.
[39]
Monica M McGill, Adrienne Decker, and Amber Settle. 2016. Undergraduate students' perceptions of the impact of pre-college computing activities on choices of major. ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE) 16, 4 (2016), 1--33.
[40]
Miller McPherson, Lynn Smith-Lovin, and Matthew E Brashears. 2006. Social isolation in America: Changes in core discussion networks over two decades. American sociological review 71, 3 (2006), 353--375.
[41]
Peter M Miller. 2012. Community-based education and social capital in an urban after-school program. Education and Urban Society 44, 1 (2012), 35--60.
[42]
Momentum. 2021. The CIC Baseline Computer Science Education Survey [Unpublished].
[43]
Leticia Oseguera, Gilberto Q Conchas, and Eduardo Mosqueda. 2011. Beyond family and ethnic culture: Understanding the preconditions for the potential realization of social capital. Youth & Society 43, 3 (2011), 1136--1166.
[44]
Lara Perez-Felkner. 2015. Perceptions and resilience in underrepresented students' pathways to college. Teachers College Record 117, 8 (2015), 1--60.
[45]
Suet-ling Pong, Lingxin Hao, and Erica Gardner. 2005. The roles of parenting styles and social capital in the school performance of immigrant Asian and Hispanic adolescents. Social Science Quarterly 86, 4 (2005), 928--950.
[46]
Alejandro Portes. 1998. Social capital: Its origins and applications in modern sociology. Annual Review of Sociology 24, 1 (1998), 1--24.
[47]
Alejandro Portes and Alejandro Rivas. 2011. The adaptation of migrant children. The future of children (2011), 219--246.
[48]
Irma Y Ramirez. 2021. "I want to advocate for our kids": How community-based organizations broker college enrollment for underrepresented students. Education and Urban Society 53, 9 (2021), 1064--1083.
[49]
Yolanda A Rankin, Jakita O Thomas, and Sheena Erete. 2021. Black women speak: Examining power, privilege, and identity in CS education. ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE) 21, 4 (2021), 1--31.
[50]
Yolanda A Rankin, Jakita O Thomas, and Sheena Erete. 2021. Real talk: Saturated sites of violence in CS education. In Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. 802--808.
[51]
Norsaremah Salleh, Emilia Mendes, and John Grundy. 2011. Empirical studies of pair programming for CS/SE teaching in higher education: A systematic literature review. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 37, 4 (2011), 509--525.
[52]
Robert J Sampson, Jeffrey D Morenoff, and Felton Earls. 1999. Beyond social capital: Spatial dynamics of collective efficacy for children. American Sociological Review (1999), 633--660.
[53]
Allison Scott, Alexis Martin, Frieda McAlear, and Sonia Koshy. 2017. Broadening participation in computing: examining experiences of girls of color. In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education. 252--256.
[54]
Megan N Shoji, Anna R Haskins, David E Rangel, and Kia N Sorensen. 2014. The emergence of social capital in low-income Latino elementary schools. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 29, 4 (2014), 600--613.
[55]
Amber Solomon, DeKita Moon, Armisha L Roberts, and Juan E Gilbert. 2018. Not just Black and not just a woman: Black women belonging in computing. In 2018 Research on Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT). IEEE, 1--5.
[56]
Jennifer Wang, Hai Hong, Jason Ravitz, and Sepehr Hejazi Moghadam. 2016. Landscape of K-12 computer science education in the U.S.: Perceptions, access, and barriers. In Proceedings of the 47th ACM Technical Symposium on Computing Science Education (SIGCSE '16). Association for Computing Machinery, 645--650.
[57]
Rebecca Zarch, Amanda Menier, Megean Garvin, Jayce Warner, Bailey Brown, and Phebe Palmer. 2023. Pre-college computing experiences: Lessons learned from expansive and inclusive options in surveys. In 2023 Conference on Research in Equitable and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT).
Index Terms
- Reaching Black Women Interested in Computing: The Importance of Organizational Ties
Recommendations
Sealing the Deal: Factors that Promote Computing Interns' Interest in Computing Careers
SIGCSE 2024: Proceedings of the 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 1Although many undergraduate computing students participate in internships, little research explores these experiences. Using survey data from 1,018 undergraduate computing students at 15 U.S. research institutions and Social Cognitive Career Theory as a ...
The Intersectional Experiences of Black Women in Computing
SIGCSE '20: Proceedings of the 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science EducationEfforts to broaden participation in computing have led to gender-focused interventions intended to increase the number of women in the field of computing. However, such efforts have failed to significantly increase the percentage of Black women in ...
Comments
Information & Contributors
Information
Published In
March 2024
1583 pages
ISBN:9798400704239
DOI:10.1145/3626252
- General Chairs:
- Ben Stephenson,
- Jeffrey A. Stone,
- Program Chairs:
- Lina Battestilli,
- Samuel A. Rebelsky,
- Libby Shoop
Copyright © 2024 ACM.
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].
Sponsors
Publisher
Association for Computing Machinery
New York, NY, United States
Publication History
Published: 07 March 2024
Check for updates
Author Tags
Qualifiers
- Research-article
Funding Sources
Conference
SIGCSE 2024
Sponsor:
SIGCSE 2024: The 55th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
March 20 - 23, 2024
OR, Portland, USA
Acceptance Rates
Overall Acceptance Rate 1,595 of 4,542 submissions, 35%
Upcoming Conference
SIGCSE TS 2025
- Sponsor:
- sigcse
Contributors
Other Metrics
Bibliometrics & Citations
Bibliometrics
Article Metrics
- 0Total Citations
- 71Total Downloads
- Downloads (Last 12 months)71
- Downloads (Last 6 weeks)2
Reflects downloads up to 13 Jan 2025
Other Metrics
Citations
View Options
Login options
Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.
Sign in