Why Definitions of Participation in Computing Matter for Defining Persistence of Women in Computing

Increasing participation and continued persistence of women in computing is a perennial problem. This paper explores how participation in computing has been defined and the consequences definitions have on understanding women's persistence in computing. The data for this paper come from 64 in-depth, qualitative interviews with young women who in high school expressed interest in computing by looking into NCWIT's Aspirations in Computing Award. Drawing on communities of practice as a conceptual framework, analyses of the interviews show that defining participation in computing as engaging in computational thinking unduly prohibits some women from full membership in computing communities. Findings show that some women who self-identify with the computing community are not fully recognized by other members of the computing community.