Gender and leadership development in undergraduate computing: a closer look at women’s leadership conceptions

Cultivating Community College Pathways to STEM Leadership: Examining the Relationships Between Gender, Upward Transfer, and Students’ Computing Leadership Identity

“…Unfortunately, initiatives to advance equity in computing continue to prioritize the needs and experiences of students who follow the most direct pathways from high school to college (Blaney, 2020a). Further, efforts to foster success among upward transfer students in computing and other STEM fields should consider outcomes beyond transfer, retention, and degree attainment in order to foster pathways from community colleges to lucrative STEM careers, including leadership roles in tech fields (Blaney, 2020a(Blaney, , 2020b. The present study provides insight into this topic by exploring the statistical predictors of leadership identity among computing majors and how those predictors may differ by gender and upward transfer status.…”

“…In addition to family-related variables, I included measures of how much time students spent working for pay. Finally, I examined sense of belonging in the computing field and a dichotomous measure of whether or not the student had attended at least one identity-based computing conference; both of these measures represent contextual variables that have been studied in relation to undergraduate computing leadership development (see Blaney, 2020b).…”

“…Broadening access to pathways from community colleges to lucrative computing careers (see Bureau of Labor Statistics [BLS], 2016) may be especially important for providing opportunities for upward mobility. In particular, it is important to consider pathways from 2-year colleges to leadership roles in the computing field, which are associated with high levels of power and financial reward (Blaney, 2020b). At present, little is known about how institutions can better support upward transfer computing students or how they can foster leadership to create a more diverse group of future tech leaders.…”

“…Understanding the affective components of college leadership (e.g., leadership identity, leadership self-efficacy) is important, as similar affective variables have been linked to leadership aspirations and behaviors after college (Chan & Drasgow, 2001). Thus, scholars have called for more research on campus experiences that promote leadership identity, both generally (Renn & Bilodeau, 2005) and specifically in computing contexts where leaders obtain a significant amount of financial and social power (see Blaney, 2020b).…”

Girls’ and young women’s leader identity development: a scoping review

“…Relatedly, educators should ensure leadership trainings are context-specific and suits the environments in which they are implemented. For example, Blaney (2020) found that undergraduate women in a computer science course self-reported that they were good leaders but did not believe this would be the case once they started to work in the field. Thus, a leader identity program for collegiate women pursuing careers in computer science might focus less on individual skill development and more on how to navigate situations and environments where they would be one of the few women in the room.…”