Executive Summary
Women of color continue to be vastly underrepresented in computer science
education and careers despite significant investments and initiatives from the
public and private sectors to broaden participation. To understand the persistence
of racial and gender inequities in computing and to advance solutions, scholars
and practitioners with the Women of Color in Computing Collaborative (WOCCC),
a partnership between the Center for Gender and Equity in Science and
Technology (CGEST) at Arizona State University and the Kapor Center, have
spent the past several months conducting research on various aspects of this
troubling issue. Their efforts yielded 13 independent projects and policy memos
that have added to the scant research in this field of study and greatly expanded
our knowledge of the ways in which inequity in Computing is maintained but can
also be redressed.
With a focus on girls and women of color, the WOCCC projects addressed
Computer Science interest and degree completion, tech workforce participation
and advancement, entrepreneurship and securing access to capital. Each of these
topics may seem distinct yet the factors that contribute to inequitable opportunities
and experiences for girls and women of color in Computing are essentially the
same: systemic racism, gender bias, and other compounding factors over
decades in k-12 and higher education, industry, and finance. Sustained, concerted
efforts must be made across all these sectors, at the same time, in order to
achieve more just and equitable outcomes in Computing for girls and women of
color. Encouragingly, recommendations from the WOCCC projects offer many
ways for key influencers and policymakers to engage in the process of bringing
about meaningful progress.

Policy Memo
February 7, 2021

of awarded
bachelor’s
degrees in Computer
Science are to Latinas
while Black
women
receive

HBCU’s
more likely to
graduate women
of color with
computing degrees

Selected Recommendations
Computer
Science Interest
and Degree
Completion

To support Latinas in Computing, create institutional policies and programs that
enhance belonging like leveraging familial capital, formalizing mentorship
programs, and expanding funding for ethnic and gender specific CS conferences.
To encourage Native American women and two-spirit individuals to pursue and
persist in CS majors, validate and integrate Native culture and science in the
curriculum and demonstrate how CS can promote social equity and cultural
integrity.

To engage Black and Latina youth in STEM, shift resources to attract and retain highly qualified STEM
teachers and invest in STEM curriculum and materials that reflect the gender, racial,
and ethnic diversity of public school students.
Calculus
To advance equity for women of color in tech, require STEM faculty and
classroom environments
advisors to complete training in systemic racism, unconscious bias, and
marginalize Black & Latina
intersectionality so they are more aware of the systems that contribute to
women contributing to
inequities and better positioned to structure their courses to support women of
ATTRITION
color.
in computing and
engineering majors.
TO VIEW ALL 13 POLICY MEMOS AND AUTHOR INFORMATION
IN FULL, PLEASE VISIT CGEST.ASU.EDU/POLICYMEMOS
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To sustain Black women’s participation in the field, addressing issues of access
is not enough. Those with power must do the work to transform the field by
building coalitions, mentoring, and maintaining relationships with Black women.
To recruit more women of color, consider the way job postings may discourage
non-traditional yet qualified candidates from applying for positions and work with
HR to incorporate more inclusive language centered around skills and
experience, rather than disciplinary background and training.

Tech Workforce
Participation
and
Advancement

To increase the productivity of women of color in the tech workplace, use Bias Interrupters to
create equitable workplace experiences so that women of color can focus more on their core
responsibilities and spend less time on undervalued admin and D&I work as well as managing
biased perceptions of their appearance and competence.

Holding
counter-stereotypical views
of scientists is a strong
predictor of a student’s
intentions to pursue a
STEM major. Black female
students held the most
counter-stereotypical
views of scientists.

To advance and promote women in color in tech, ensure
women of color have appropriate resources to successfully
do their jobs, have access to mentors and sponsors within
the company, and ensure managers have proper training to
provide unbiased, fact-based, ongoing, and actionable
feedback to employees.

Entrepreneurship and
Access to Capital

Less than

To expand opportunities for Black women tech entrepreneurs to launch businesses, of venture capital
is awarded
increase exposure to debt-based financing, equity crowdfunding, and access
to
women of
points to start-up space.
color
To reduce barriers causing funding disparities women of color STEM female entrepreneurs of
color, startup incubator and investment firms should: Broaden networks, outreach, and deal
sourcing strategies to make explicit efforts to reach tech entrepreneurs from diverse
backgrounds; Remove arbitrary selection criteria or decision-making that disadvantage
entrepreneurs of color; remove “weed-out” philosophy from your program culture, operations,
and curriculum to focus on engaging entrepreneurs through holistic support and flexible
design.

Pilot Study Leads to Change
After a study demonstrated how women of color in
humanities can use perspectives, experiences, and
backgrounds to support the development of localized,
user-centered technologies, the English Department at
UT El Paso created an undergraduate major in
User-Experience.

In a survey of 111 female tech
founders, results revealed that
Black women founders had

access to less than

$5,000 pre-launch while

White women founders had
access to more than $50,000
pre-launch.

THE FINDINGS SUMMARIZED IN THE ABOVE RECOMMENDATIONS WERE AUTHORED BY THE FOLLOWING WOCCC GRANTEES:
Sarah Rodriguez (TAMUC); Daisy Ramirez, Kate Lehman, & Linda J. Sax (UCLA); Nuria Jaumot-Pascual, Christina Bebe
Silva & Maria Ong (TERC); Kathy DeerinWater (American Indian Science and Engineering Society); Christin Shelton,
Wanda Eugene, & Shani B. Daily (DEEP Designs); Jakita Thiomas (Auburn University); Ursula Nguyen & Catherine
Riegle-Crumb (University of Texas at Austin); Laura Gonzales (The University of Florida); Joy Robinson (The University of
Alabama at Huntsville); Ann Shivers-McNair (The University of Arizona); Clarissa San Diego (Makerologist); Luis A Leyva
(Vanderbilt University); Joan C. Williams, Rachel Korn, Sky Mihaylo, & Rachel Maas (Center for Worklife Law, University
of California Hastings Law); Sonia Manjon & Sali Jiroh (LeaderSpring Center); Yukendy Valdez (Forefront); Mara Perez
(Latino Futures Consulting & Think Tank Project); Rati Thanawala; Kate Brodock (Women 2.0); Gregg Muragishi,
Elizabeth Weitz, & Gregory Walton (Stanford University); Heather Metcalf & Aspen Russell (AWIS); Erin Kelley (S2M)

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