2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Undergraduate degrees in computer science increased over the last 10 years from 42,459 degrees earned in 2013 to 114,751 degrees earned in 2023, but this growth has not been equally distributed across the population. For example, the number of CS bachelor's degrees earned by Asian students grew more than fivefold from 2013 to 2023, while the number earned by Black students increased by a factor of only 2.3, less than the overall growth rate of 2.7. White men decreased their share of degrees earned by 14.7%. Despite the decrease in representation, our study finds computing environments are more favorable to white men as compared to other students.

As part of a larger study to examine the pre-college pathways and experiences that influence Black women participating in computer science, computer science majors at 3 institutions in Maryland and 11 institutions in Texas were invited to participate in an online survey. The survey explored students’ current college experience, pre-college experience, sense of computing identity, and demographic information. Data from the survey was examined by race and gender with a focus on Black women.

With a total of 764 survey responses, the results show a difference in the pre-college and current experiences among different demographic groups. Applying Fisher’s Exact testing to our survey results reveals that for white men (n=183) as compared to other students, particularly Black women (n=52), the pre-college and college computing environments work well. White men were statistically more likely than the rest of respondents to report enjoying their pre-college computing classes and learning about computer science. They were also more likely to feel welcome in their classes than other respondents. White men were also less likely to report that their pre-college computing courses were mostly made up of boys and majority white suggesting a lack of awareness of computing spaces as sites of racial and gender bias. We theorize that the white men’s lack of awareness is a result of the white habitus. In contrast Black women, were more likely than the overall respondent pool to report their classes are made up of boys and white students, and say they felt less belonging in the classes. Within their college majors Black women are also less likely than other students in the sample to believe others see their identity as overlapping with that of a computing professional and are also more likely to say they have felt self-conscious about their race, ethnicity and gender while in their computing environments.

In an environment that was historically dominated by white men, but is broadening to other groups, interrogating the pathways into and experiences within undergraduate computing can help identify ways to evolve the culture that privileges white men by making this privilege more visible to those that benefit. This study will continue to explore the connection between policy and experience for Black women in computing. Themes such as whiteness as the norm, white habitus, critical consciousness and how gender influences belongingness in STEM, in addition to race are being explored as avenues to interpret the results. (Work in Progress)