Women of Color in Computing Research Collaborative:

developing, testing, and scaling interventions to diversify tech

Explore the Data: Women of Color in Computing

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PreK-12

Only 7% of all students who took the AP CS A exam were Black, Latinx or Native American/Alaskan Native girls.
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Higher Education

Black, Latinx, and Native American/Alaskan Native women earn just 10% of Bachelor’s degrees in computing.
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Tech Workforce

Less than 1% of Silicon Valley tech leadership positions are held by Latinx women and less than .5% are held by Black women.
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Entrepreneurship

Underrepresented women of color receive less than 1% of all venture funding and represent only 1% of all venture professionals.

This project aims to increase the number of women and girls of color pursuing and completing CS degrees, and participating in the tech workforce, entrepreneurship and venture capital. We aim to do this by conducting and disseminating research on:

Data trends among women of color in computing education and career pathways

Barriers to participation in computing among women of color

Innovative and effective interventions and strategies to increase participation in computing among women of color

Funded Research

The collaborative is comprised of 14 research projects exploring the participation of women of color in computing in higher education, the technology workforce, technology entrepreneurship, and venture capital.

These emerging research findings will be used to inform practices and strategies that can be implemented by educators, DEI practitioners, tech industry leaders, and venture capitalists to ensure women of color are included as leaders and creators in our rapidly growing technology ecosystem.

Click below for more information on each research project.

Who We Are

Principal Investigators

Allison Scott Headshot

Dr. Allison Scott, Chief Research Officer, Kapor Center

Frieda McAlear hi-res headshot

Frieda McAlear, M.Res., Senior Research Associate, Kapor Center

KimberlyAScottEdD

Dr. Kimberly A. Scott, Professor and Founding Executive Director, Center for Gender and Equity in Science and Technology (CGEST), Arizona State University

Advisory Board

Barb Whye

Intel

Laura Huang

Harvard University

Monica Anderson

Pew Research

Renee Wittemyer

Pivotal Ventures

Evelynn Hammonds

Harvard University

Brenda Darden Wilkerson

Anita Borg Institute

Sarah EchoHawk

Sarah Echohawk, American Indian Science and Engineering Society

Ulili Onovakpuri

Kapor Capital

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Questions?

Please send any questions about the WOC in Computing Research Collaborative to Frieda McAlear, friedam@kaporcenter.org

Site images courtesy of #WOCinTech Chat, available under Creative Common Attribution - License.