Understanding underrepresentation in IT through intersectionality

Abstract

Results of an investigation of the effect of intersectionality on perceptions of university students about IT careers are presented. This analysis deepens the discussion began at the 2011 iConference by presenting an examination of responses of African American males and females on the topic of gender norms and stereotypes about IT professionals. The findings provide evidence of the influence of race on gender stereotypes that individuals hold about the IT field. Gender differences in stereotypes reveal within-race variation in perceptions about the IT field. IT skills perceived by African American females as feminine are nearly identical to those found across all participants in the study. In contrast, African American males did not identify any skills as feminine. These results suggest that finer grained analysis of under representation in the IT field can be achieved by pursuing the intersectionality of gender and race.

Sense of Belonging: The Intersectionality of Self-Identified Minority Status and Gender in Undergraduate Computer Science Students

“…Schlesinger, Edwards & Grinter [20] emphasised the need for research to recognise the intersections of diverse aspects of identities, including their race, gender, and class, but also other aspects such as nationality and/or sexuality [29], and intersectionality has been used to try and understand underrepresentation [26]. In this work we use intersectionality as a lens to bring into focus the sense of belonging of two groups in particular: those identifying as women and those identifying as minorities.…”

Investigating the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on computing students' sense of belonging

“…These intersections can involve gender, race and socio-economic factors, as well as nationality, sexuality and others [41]. Intersectionality has been used as a lens to better understand underrepresentation [38]. In this study we observe effects on sense of belonging that differ depending on the factors that intersect.…”

Does Technology Have Race?

“…The interlocution between HCI literature and intersectionalist perspectives is an emergent one; it is one that, such as Trauth et al argue, "Rather than examining identity characteristics such as race, ethnicity, gender and class in isolation, intersectionality considers how these interact to mutually construct one another" [52, p.199]. We hope to expand this discussion with ways to further our understandings of how multifaceted user identities and perspectives can be critically understood in order to expand diversity within computing cultures and how it may be sustainable in terms of practitioners [7,11,53]. Young's [59] form of intersectionality, the Lived Body Experience is perhaps most known to the HCI community in that it addresses a person's embodied interaction with the world through the intersectional lenses of their race, gender, sex, (dis)ability, age, etc.…”