Identifying Effective Re-entry Pathways for Returning Women to Transition into Computing and Tech Education and Workforce

ABSTRACT

The disparity of women in computing and technology field is quite evident. There have been many national initiatives over the past decade that tried to enhance diversity in these fields. However, one group of population, returning women, have received little to no attention. Covid-19 pandemic has made this situation even worse by sharpening the inequality in America's economy, where nearly eight times the number of women left the workforce compared to men last year. Yet, returning women, remain to be one of the largest untapped talent pools in the nation. The field of computing and Emerging Technology (EmTech) can use the untapped potential of returning women to fill the gap in workforce, which is growing at a rapid rate. Hence, to broaden participation and to understand the barriers and challenges faced by returning women to (re-)enter EmTech, a national virtual conference, RESET, was organized in 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, we present results from a mixed method study to investigate if the attendance at the RESET conference is a predictor of returning women's elevated knowledge in (re-)entering EmTech education and/or workforce, and if the conference was successful in identifying resources that would facilitate transition of returning women in computing and tech discipline. In our quest to answer the questions we also report on - 1) challenges and barriers returning women face when pursuing computing degree, after a break, 2) challenges and barriers returning women face to transition to computing jobs, after a career break, 3) strategies and technical preparations that can be adopted to ease this transition, 4) level of satisfaction with the resources offered by the conference;5) knowledge benefit from various technical sessions;6) compliance with effectiveness of the resources offered;and 7) preparedness in pursuing EmTech education and workforce. © 2022 IEEE.