"Aspray (Univ. of Colorado Boulder), a well-known historian of the computer, aims to encourage primary source research into the participation and contributions of women, African Americans, Hispanics, and American Indians. ... Summing Up: Recommended. All readers." (A. K. Ackerberg-Hastings, Choice, Vol. 54 (6), February, 2017)
Introduction
Part I: Digest of Relevant Literatures
Opening STEM Careers to Women
Opening STEM Careers to African Americans
Opening STEM Careers to Hispanics
Opening STEM Careers to American Indians
Part II: Case Studies
Organizations That Help Women to Build STEM Careers
Organizations That Help Underrepresented Minorities to Build STEM Careers
Organizations That Help Women Build Computing Careers
Organizations That Help Underrepresented Minorities Build Computing Careers
Building Educational Infrastructures for Broadening Participation in Computing
This text examines in detail the issue of the underrepresentation of women, African Americans, American Indians, and Hispanics in the computing disciplines in the U.S. The work reviews the underlying causes, as well as the efforts of various nonprofit organizations to correct the situation, in order to both improve social equity and address the shortage of skilled workers in this area.
Topics and features:
Presents a digest and historical overview of the relevant literature from a range of disciplines, including leading historical and social science sources
Discusses the social and political factors that have affected the demographics of the workforce from the end of WWII to the present day
Provides historical case studies on organizations that have sought to broaden participation in computing and the STEM disciplines
Reviews the different approaches that have been applied to address underrepresentation, at the individual, system-wide, and pathway-focused level
Profiles the colleges and universities that have been successful in opening up computer science or engineering to female students
Describes the impact of individual change-agents as well as whole organizations
This valuable study will be of great interest to a varied readership, including computer scientists, social scientists studying science and technology, race and gender scholars, education historians, policy scholars, and historians of computing.
Dr. William Aspray is a professor in the Department of Information Science at the University of Colorado Boulder. His other Springer publications include Participation in Computing, Formal and Informal Approaches to Food Policy and Food in the Internet Age.