Diversity in computing

[9] There are multiple organizations and initiatives which are working towards increasing diversity in computing by providing resources, mentorship, support, and fostering a sense of belonging for minority groups such as EarSketch and Black Girls Code.

[12] Along with Institutions Educators can help cultivate a sense of confidence in underrepresented students interested in pursuing computing, such as emphasizing a growth mindset, rejecting the idea that some individuals have innate talent, and establishing inclusive learning environments.

Hispanics, Blacks, and American Indians or Alaska Natives collectively only accounted for 24% of STEM occupations in 2021 while making up 31% of the total population.

[16] When it comes to career mobility, a 2022 report found that there is a gap in promotions given in the tech industry to women in comparison to men.

The same study (this time only surveying UMES students) found that fewer women than men had learned about computers and programming in high school.

The researchers have concluded that these factors could contribute to lower numbers of women and minorities choosing to pursue computing degrees.

For participants to excel in a tech-related course or career, their sense of belonging matters more than pre-gained knowledge.

In a survey of 2,030 workers between the ages of 18 and 28 conducted in July 2021, the company found that 50% said they had left or wanted to their leave tech or IT job “because the company culture made them feel unwelcome or uncomfortable,” with a higher percentage of women and Asian, Black, and Hispanic respondents each saying they had such an experience.

[21] Black gamers are put into unique positions when it comes to entering spaces of gaming, for when they are represented incorrectly whilst constantly at risk of being harassed for a wide variety of reasons.

[23] Moreover, Black content creators have a unique space within the gaming world: they need to maintain a level of being black that allows people to be comfortable with watching their content, but in creating who they are as creators, they are inherently creating spaces for racialized comments against them that fills their comment sections.

Moreover, whenever they do ask for bigger changes, companies take on a race-blind approach to ignoring the problems within the communities they are allowing to exist.

[24] The issues that lie dormant within the training data of large language models such as ChatGPT can be seen through how it sees black people.

[26] When this was discovered, OpenAI quickly created a block for questions that directly pertained to race, rather than fixing the issue at hand.

Moreover, because of the lax nature of many popular social media sites (such as Twitter), there exists many ways in which white nationalists can come together to spread hatred through large hate waves that target people of color, and most especially black women.

[34] Institutions working to improve diversity in the computing sector are focusing on increasing access to resources and building a sense of belonging for minorities.

Its aim is to spark interest in programming and computer science for a wider range of students and "to attract different demographics, especially girls.

According to the American Association of University Women (AAUW), there are several things that teachers can do to cultivate a sense of confidence in underrepresented individuals interested in pursuing an education or career in the field of computing.

Of these there are ten that have been heavily researched and are as follows:[12] These methods on their own are not enough to adequately increase the diversity of the talent pool but have shown promise as potential solutions.

They can be most effective when used in an integrated manner, meaning the more that are studied and utilized the closer to a solution STEM educators will be.

The AAUW published a set of proposals for STEM employers to adopt, aimed at enhancing diversity within their organizations: