Moms Can Be Computing Leaders, Too!

Women in underserved communities of computing such as women of color, women in poverty, elderly women, women with disabilities, and mothers who prioritize their families over their careers have little to no access to training or career development in a technical field due to lack of childcare, limited availability, lack of education, lack of employment history, transportation, and financial cost of training. Women from these groups often suffer from trauma or imposter syndrome lacking the confidence to believe they are capable of working with technology. Yet, in 2022, women are 91% of the households with children in public housing, which is more than 232 thousand households. Children from these households have very little possibility of social mobility from the bottom to the top quintile. There is a dearth of computer training opportunities for these women. A community computing learning center that is inclusive of and tailored to all mothers and their children would help to fill the void in the US technical workforce and break the cycle of poverty that exists in many low-income communities. Universities can play a critical role in the participatory design of these centers so that they can dually serve as an equity-enabling computer education research center for its faculty and students. Women led the computing revolution in the past and can lead the culturally responsive computing education movement of the future.