Virtual Vessels of Empowerment: Exploring Everyday Resilience Building Tactics in Online Forums Focused on Nurturing Professional Development of Women in Technical Domains

Abstract

Work and learning are essential facets of our existence, yet socio‐cultural barriers may limit access and opportunity in such contexts. Women historically have faced several restrictions that have hindered their entry into professional ventures. Such constraints also manifest in technical domains, due to the sociocultural barriers in these fields which have placed such voices at the margins. These barriers have been associated with strife, turmoil, and emotional strain for those affected. Hence, it is important to investigate how women can subvert such structural limitations and can find channels through which they can seek support and guidance to navigate their careers. Motivated by this aim, this work through mixed inferences drawn from content and emotion analysis of 1,062 conversational threads embarks on a preliminary investigation of a subreddit (r/girlsgonewired) to understand the ways in which community practices may emerge in such channels to provide various dimensions of support and resilience‐building to help manage the struggles and travails of everyday life. The long‐term goal for this work is to address the way in which such channels can be designed, maintained, and curated to offer spaces for enrichment, empowerment, and advocacy with a focus on professional development for women in technical domains.