Abstract
Computing is highly segregated and stratified by gender. While there is abundant scholarship investigating this problem, emerging evidence suggests that a hierarchy of value exists between the social and technical dimensions of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) and this plays a role in the underrepresentation of women in the field. This ethnographic study of women's experiences in computing offers evidence of a systemic preference for the technical dimensions of computing over the social and a correlation between gender and social aspirations. Additionally, it suggests there is a gap between the exaltation of computing's social contributions and the realities of them. My participants expressed a yearning to contribute to the collective well-being of society using their computing skills. I trace moments of rupture in my participants' stories, moments when they felt these aspirations were in conflict with the cultural values in their organizations. I interpret these ruptures within a consideration of yearning, a need my participants had to contribute meaningfully to society that remained unfulfilled. The yearning to align one's altruistic values with one's careers aspirations in CSE illuminates an area for greater exploration on the path to realizing gender equity in computing. I argue that before a case can be made that careers in computing do indeed contribute to social and civil engagements, we must first address the meaning of the social within the values, ideologies and practices of CSE institutions and next, develop ways to measure and evaluate the field's contributions to society.
Highlights
AND FRAMEWORKSComputing knowledge is produced in highly segregated classrooms, labs, and workplaces, and many of these sites are rife with exclusionary practices (Cohen and Swim, 1995; Margolis and Fisher, 2002; Barker et al, 2005; Misa, 2011; Corbett and Hill, 2015)
Main findings warrant further attention, including the role social aspirations play in the underrepresentation of women in Computer Science and Engineering (CSE)
Yearning to Give Back (Diekman et al, 2010, 2016; Cech, 2013b, 2014; Garibay, 2015; Litchfield and Javernick-Will, 2015; Blanchard Kyte and RiegleCrumb, 2017; Cheryan et al, 2017). These interdisciplinary studies advance the theory that social purpose is an important factor to consider in working toward gender equity in CSE
Summary
Computing knowledge is produced in highly segregated classrooms, labs, and workplaces, and many of these sites are rife with exclusionary practices (Cohen and Swim, 1995; Margolis and Fisher, 2002; Barker et al, 2005; Misa, 2011; Corbett and Hill, 2015). Our technological society grants different valuation to each side of these binaries, privileging quantitative, abstract rationality, and subordinating social, material, qualitative inquiries of the world (Denzin et al, 2006; Foor and Walden, 2009; Richter and Paretti, 2009; Garibay, 2015) How can these cultural values and norms in computing—ones that denigrate the epistemic practices and findings of research with social applications (Diekman et al, 2010; Cech, 2013a)—be reconciled with the altruistic yearnings of its practitioners and widely accepted claims that computers promote human freedom and social advancement?. By examining structures of power through the lens of lived experience, we will deepen understandings of the cultural landscape of CSE, and better determine what constitutes “good” science in the social/intellectual movement to end labor segregation in computer science and engineering
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