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Cited by 38Gender and Technology in EducationCareer Development and DiversityInformation Systems Education and Curriculum Development

The Unexpected Entry and Exodus of Women in Computing and HCI in India

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Thakkar, Divy, Sambasivan, Nithya, Kulkarni, Purva, Kalenahalli Sudarshan, Pratap, Toyama, Kentaro·2018·Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
DOI 10.1145/3173574.3173926
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Abstract

In India, women represent 45% of total computer science enrollment in universities, almost three times the rate in the United States, where it is 17%. At the same time, women make up an estimated 25-30% of the HCI community in India, half the rate in the U.S. We investigate the complexities of these surprising phenomena through qualitative research of Indian computer science and human-computer interaction researchers and professionals at various life stages. We find among other things that Indian familial norms play a significant role in pressuring young women into computing as a field; that familial pressures and workplace discrimination then cause a precipitous exit of women from computing at the onset of marriage; and that HCI occupies an interstitial space between art and technology that affects women's careers. Our findings underscore the societal influence on women's representation in the tech sector and invite further participation by the HCI community in related questions.

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  • Lending models imagined middle-class men as end-users, even though microfinance studies show women have high loan repayment rates.

    “Many respondents described how lending models imagined middle-class men as end-users-even with many microfinance studies showing that women have high loan repayment rates [69,198].”

    From Re-imagining Algorithmic Fairness in India and Beyond (2021) · cites this paper as [198]

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Research works printed but not linked: 5

  1. J McGrath Cohoon, Zhen Wu, and Jie Chao. 2009. Sexism: toxic to women's persistence in CSE doctoral programs. In ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, Vol. 41. ACM, 158-162.
  2. Corinne A Moss-Racusin, John F Dovidio, Victoria L Brescoll, Mark J Graham, and Jo Handelsman. 2012. Science facultyâ Ȃ Źs subtle gender biases favor male students. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109, 41 (2012), 16474-16479.
  3. C.C Mukhopadhyay. 1996. The cultural context of gendered science: a theoretical model derived from studies in India. Gates 3, 1 (1996).
  4. Roli Varma. 2010. Forms of Social Asymmetry and Cultural Bias: Of Gender and Science in India and the World. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering 16 (2010). Issue 3.
  5. Sujata Venkatesh. 2015. Forms of Social Asymmetry and Cultural Bias: Of Gender and Science in India and the World. Transcience (2015) 6, 1 (2015).

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Authors
Thakkar, D., Sambasivan, N., Kulkarni, P., Kalenahalli Sudarshan, P., & Toyama, K.
Affiliations
  • Google (United States) (US)
  • University of Michigan (US)
  • Google Inc., Bangalore, Karnataka, India
ORCID
Venue
Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Publisher
ACM
Published
2018-04-21
Pages
1-12
DOI
10.1145/3173574.3173926
OpenAlex
W2773069493
Cited by
38
References
45
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 5
FWCI
54.56
Type
conference paper
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender and Technology in Education
  • Social Sciences › Safety Research › Career Development and Diversity
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Information Systems Education and Curriculum Development
Keywords
women in computing, India, employment discrimination, women's careers

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