How an online women in technology group provides a locus of opposition

an arrticle by Wendy M. DuBow (University of Colorado, Boulder, USA) and Alexis Kaminsky (Kaminsky Consulting, USA) published in Computers in Human Behavior Volume 98 (September 2019)

Highlights

• Qualitative analysis of big data shows how social support functions for marginalized persons in a virtual community.
• An online women in computing group provides belonging and an oppositional discourse to counter sexism and exclusion.
• Conversation analyses show social-emotional and practical support that develops and reinforces a counterpublic.
• The counterpublic allows participants to challenge their exclusion and confirm their “right to be” in computing.

Abstract

This paper analyzes conversation threads from a closed Facebook group for women in computing.

The dataset contains more than 13,000 posts and spans five years during which time the group greatly expanded in membership. Drawing on research about online forums as well as the research on obstacles and supports for women in computing, the authors use qualitative analysis and take a feminist perspective to show the various ways in which the group provides a locus of oppositional discourse.

This discourse highlights the systemic nature of exclusionary practices in the computing field at the secondary and post-secondary levels, providing a way for group members to see past individual circumstances and, thereby, find ways to oppose the cultures in which they live, study and work.

Understanding how this oppositional discourse serves women, a group sorely underrepresented in the field of computing, can help identify promising levers for making the culture of computing more inclusive.

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