The Leaky Tech Pipeline
The Leaky Tech Pipeline
Research
Additional research on each of the barriers across the leaky tech pipeline can be found below.
Race, Religion, and Political Affiliation of Americans’ Core Social Networks Cox, Navarro-Rivera & Jones | 2016
Social networks are highly segregated by race and gender, creating greater risk aversion on part of investors, who are overwhelmingly white and male.
The nature of information and overconfidence on venture capitalists’ decision making Zacharakis & Shepherd | 2001
There is evidence of an “availability bias” in VC decision-making; VCs rely on how well the current decision matches past successful or failed investments. VCs are overconfident in their prediction of venture success when they predict a very high level of success.
Gender and venture capital decision-making: The effects of technical background and social capital on entrepreneurial evaluations Tinkler, Bunker Whittington, Ku & Rees Davies | 2014
Investors are more likely to fund female founders with a technical (STEM) education and professional background in contrast to male founders, effectively creating a higher standard for funding companies founded by women.
The Startling Statistics That Prove Venture Capitalists Are More Likely To Fund White Males Over Minorities And Women Aaron Kaufman | 2014
Companies founded by men receive 98% of all venture capital funding.
Who Gets Venture Capital Funding? Meisler, Rojanasakul & Diamond | 2016
Just 7% of venture backed founders are women. Companies founded by women get less money--$77M compared to $100M for companies started by men.
Does Social Proximity Enhance Business Relationships? Theory and Evidence from Ethnicity’s Role in US Venture Capital Hedge & Tumlinson | 2014
VCs are more likely to invest in startups with executives from the same ethnic group than executives from different ethnic groups, even when the non-coethnic ventures are of superior quality. Ethnic proximity between VCs and the startups they invest in is positively related to performance in acquisitions and initial public offerings (IPOs), largely due to influence between coethnic VCs and startup executives after the investment.
Interorganizational Endorsements and the Performance of Entrepreneurial Ventures Stuart, Hoang & Hybels | 1999
Having a prominent investor increases perceptions of the quality of the company. Sponsorship from a prominent partner can substitute for accomplishment and experience as the basis of investment.
Education and Tech Entrepreneurship Wadhwa, Freeman & Rissing | 2009
Half of U.S. born tech founders hold Bachelor's Degrees in a STEM field, and the top 10 universities that tech founders received their degrees from are Harvard, MIT, Pennsylvania State University, Stanford, University of California- Berkeley, University of Missouri, University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, University of Texas, and University of Virginia.
The Emergence of Entrepreneurship Education: Development, Trends, and Challenges Kuratko | 2005
Entrepreneurship education programs have grown exponentially since the 1990s. Ongoing challenges in this area include the barriers encountered by women and people of color in entrepreneurship, the lack of faculty at every level of the education pipeline, and the lack of promotion of entrepreneurship research in most business schools.
Diversity Facts Stanford University | 2017
Stanford is the 2nd highest producer of VC-backed tech founders, yet just 6% of Stanford's undergraduate student population is African American and 16% is Latinx.
Top 50 Universities Report, 2017-18 Edition Stanford, Hammond & Sam | 2017
Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley are the #1 and #2 producers of venture-backed entrepreneurs since 2006. Since the vast majority of founders come from these institutions (which lack diversity), there are restricted networks and access for diverse entrepreneurs.
Tech Leavers Study: A first-of-its-kind analysis of why people voluntarily left jobs in tech. Oakland Scott, Klein, & Onovakpuri | 2017
Unfair treatment drives high turnover in the tech sector, costing the sector $16bn annually in costs associated with employee replacement.
Tech and Startup Culture Survey Women Who Tech and Lincoln Park Strategies | 2017
Racial and sexual harassment is widespread in the tech sector: 43% of tech employees experienced racial harassment (53% of women and 17% of men), 44% of women founders experienced harassment.
The effect of gender stereotype activation on entrepreneurial intentions Gupta, Turban & Bhawe | 2008
When entrepreneurship was associated with masculine stereotypes, women were less interested in pursuing entrepreneurship. Men also had greater intentions to pursue entrepreneurship than women when no stereotypes were present, suggesting that underlying societal stereotypes influence career intentions.
Minority women entrepreneurs: How outsider status can lead to better business practices Godwyn & Stoddard | 2011
Gender stereotypes about technical or math ability are greater for women with another identity marginalized in the tech entrepreneurship/VC sector, such as race/ethnicity.
Stereotype Threat and the Intellectual Test Performance of African Americans Steele & Aronson | 1995
Stereotype threat, or the fear of confirming a negative stereotype about one’s group, can lead to lower performance (compared to ability) for women and people of color, specifically in technical and math-related fields. ST is activated in situations where individuals face evaluative scrutiny, when stereotypes are present, and when one is a single representative of a larger group.
Does Cultural Capital Matter? Exploring Sources of Funding in New Venture Creation Ingram, Hechavarria & Matthews | 2014
Cultural capital, as indicated by highest level of education completed, net worth, and prior start up experience, is more important than human and social capital in determining the ability to finance early stage companies.
Wealth inequality has widened along racial, ethnic lines since end of Great Recession Kochhar & Fry | 2014
The racial wealth gap continues to grow, with the wealth of White households 13x the wealth of Black households. Entrepreneurs of color are less likely to have access to the early capital necessary for family and friends fundraising rounds.
Orchestrating Impartiality: The Impact of “Blind” Auditions on Female Musicians Goldin & Rouse | 2000
A shift to using blind audition procedures fostered impartiality in hiring and increased the proportion of women participating in symphony orchestras.
Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? A Field Experiment on Labor Market Discrimination Bertrand & Mullainathan | 2004
Resumes with White sounding names receive 50% more call-backs than resumes with African-American sounding names.
Hiring as cultural matching Rivera | 2012
Cultural matching between candidates, interviewees, and companies are highly salient and assessments of “cultural fit” can often outweigh assessments of productivity and skill.
Implicit sources of bias in employment interview judgments and decisions Segrest, Perrewe, Gillespie, Mayes, & Ferris | 2006
Applicants with ethnic names and speaking with Spanish accents were viewed less positively by interviewers.
Gender- and race-based standards of competence: lower minimum standards but higher ability standards for devalued groups Biernat & Kobrynowicz | 1997
African-American job applicants were held to higher standards of competence and required to demonstrate greater evidence of skills before being rated as capable of excelling in the position than white applicants.
Social Capital: A Theory of Social Structure and Action Lin | 2001
Information, influence, social credentials, and reinforcement are four mechanisms of social capital, which is the access to and use of resources embedded in social networks.
Birds of A Feather: Homophily in Social Networks McPherson, Smith-Lovin & Cook | 2001
The homophily principle: People’s personal networks are homogeneous with regard to demographic, behavioral, and intrapersonal characteristics, which limits their social interactions and experiences. Men tend to have more sex homophilous networks than do women, especially in workplaces where they are a strong majority.
On Views of Race and Inequality Pew Research Center | 2016
Experiences with racial discrimination are far more prevalent among Black adults (71%) than white adults (30%)
Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks, Hispanics Taylor, Kochhar, Fry, Velasco, & Motel | 2011
Overview of wealth gaps in the U.S. by demographic groups.
Women and Caregiving: Facts and Figures National Center on Caregiving | 2015
Women are more likely to be caregivers for elderly parents than men.
The Social Psychology of Stigma Major & O'Brien | 2005
A review of the social psychology literature on stigma and stigmatization.
Consuming Images: How Television Commercials that Elicit Stereotype Threat Can Restrain Women Academically and Professionally Davies, Spencer, Quinn, Gerhardstein | 2002
Gender-stereotypic television commercials led women to avoid quantitative domains and express less interest in vocations where they would be susceptible to stereotype threat.
A threat in the air: How stereotypes shape intellectual identity and performance Steele | 1997
Stereotype threat reduces the standardized test performance of women and African Americans (offering a new interpretation of group differences in standardized test performance) and causes disidentification with school.
Gender, Race and Meritocracy in Organizational Careers Castilla | 2008
Women and minorities receive less compensation than White men with equal scores on performance evaluations, challenging the objectivity of merit-based policies.
The Gender Wage Gap by Occupation 2016; and by Race and Ethnicity Hegewisch & Williams-Baron | 2017
Female software developers earn 83% of what male software developers earn. Men of all races earn more than their female counterparts of the same race in virtually every occupational category. In professional occupations, Asian men earn the highest salaries, followed by White men, Hispanic men, Black men, Asian women, White women, Hispanic women and Black women. The salary differential from lowest to highest is nearly double: $1653 weekly vs. $832 weekly.
The Tilted Playing Field: Hidden Bias in Information Technology Workplaces Level Playing Field Institute | 2011
Women and people of color report significantly more negative workplace experiences than their peers. Negative workplace experiences were significantly related to negative overall job satisfaction. Men were much more likely than women to be satisfied with the amount of time spent by their company on diversity efforts (82% vs. 60%).
Tech and Startup Culture Survey Women Who Tech | 2017
53% of women experienced harassment at work, compared to 16% of men. Harassment included sexist harassment, sexual harassment, and offensive slurs.
Research: Vague Feedback is Holding Women Back Correll & Simard | 2016
Females in high-tech companies receive more vague feedback not tied to business outcomes, which was also associated with lower overall performance ratings.
A Meta-Analysis of Rate Race Effects in Performance Ratings Kraiger & Ford | 1985
In a meta-analysis, overall supervisors give higher ratings to subordinates of their own race. The own-race effects were more salient in settings in which blacks composed a small percentage of the workforce.
The relationship of race and gender to managers’ ratings of promotion potential Landau | 1995
In ratings of promotion potential, females were rated lower than males, and Blacks and Asians were rated lower than Whites.
INTERN TO FULL-TIME HIRE CONVERSION: “RETURNING” VS “NONRETURNING” INTERNS National Association of Colleges and Employers | 2015
A national survey found that, on average, employers hired 51.7% of their eligible interns full-time.
The Equity Ethic: Black and Latinx College Students Reengineering Their STEM Careers toward Justice McGee and Bentley | 2017
Underrepresented Black and Latinx undergraduate students pursue STEM majors and careers in order to help others.
Gaining insights into the effects of culturally responsive curriculum on historically underrepresented students’ desire for computer science Miller | 2016
Overview of the factors that lead to underrepresented students’ retention in introductory Computer Science at UC Berkeley.
Signaling Threat: How Situational Cues Affect Women in Math, Science, and Engineering Settings Murphy, Steele, & Gross | 2007
Unbalanced situational ratios of men to women in STEM environments affects women’s sense of belonging and desire to participate.
Ambient belonging: How stereotypical cues impact gender participation in computer science Cheryan, Davies, Plaut, & Steele | 2009
Exposure to environments with stereotypical cues in college computing environments discouraged women's sense of belonging and subsequent interest in the computing environment.
Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans Steele & Aronson | 1995
The threat of confirming a negative stereotype about one’s group can lead to: Decreased academic performance Internal attributions for failure Reduced sense of belonging in stereotyped domains Disengagement and disidentification Altered professional identities and aspirations
Stereotype Threat and Women’s Math Performance Spencer, Steele, & Quinn | 1999
Stereotype threat can substantially interfere with women’s math performance, and factors that remove this threat can improve performance.
The Importance of Minority teachers: Student Perceptions of Minority Versus White teachers Cherng & Halpin | 2016
Students of color have more favorable perceptions of teachers of color over White teachers.
A Qualitative Investigation of Factors Promoting the Retention and Persistence of Students of Color in STEM Palmer, Maramba, & Dancy | 2011
Peer support groups in STEM programs are an important form of academic and social support for underrepresented students and contribute to persistence in STEM.
Black STEM Students and the Opportunity Structure Figueroa, Hurtado, & Wilkins | 2015
Social support from peers in STEM degree programs increase self-efficacy and motivation for African American students in STEM.
The stereotypical computer scientist: Gendered media representations as a barrier to inclusion for women Cheryan, Plaut, Handron, & Hudson | 2013
Findings suggest that stereotypes of academic fields influence who chooses to participate in these fields.
Gender differences in recommendation letters for postdoctoral fellowships in geoscience Dutt, Pfaff, Bernstein, Dillard & Block | 2016
In the sciences, women are less likely to receive positive recommendation letters or to be hired for lab positions than males.
The Costs of Accepting Gender Differences: The Role of Stereotype Endorsement in Women’s Experience in the Math Domain Schmader, Johns, & Barquissau | 2004
Women who believe that status differences between genders are legitimate are more likely to endorse gender stereotypes about women’s math abilities, which predicts more negative self perceptions of math competence. Women who tend to endorse gender stereotypes are more susceptible to the negative effects of stereotype threat on their math test performance.
Considering the impact of racial stigmas and science identity: Persistence among biomedical and behavioral science aspirants Chang, Eagan, Lin, & Hurtado | 2011
Highly domain-identified students who also reported having higher frequencies of negative racial experiences were considerably less likely to remain in their initial STEM majors compared to their similarly domain-identified counterparts who reported having fewer of the same negative racial experiences.
Wealth inequality has widened along racial, ethnic lines since end of Great Recession Kochhar & Fry | 2014
The median wealth of White households is 13x higher than the median wealth of Black households.
Is AP Exam Participation and Performance Related to Choice of College Major? Mattern, Shaw & Ewing | 2011
Students who do not take AP Computer Science are 8X less likely to pursue college degrees in computer science.
Ending the Double Disadvantage: Ensuring STEM Opportunities in Our Poorest Schools Change the Equation | 2017
Students in high poverty schools are much less likely to have access to advanced math and science courses (like Calculus and Physics) than students in low poverty schools. Only 1 in 4 students (26%) who attend high poverty schools have access to any CS course in their school.
Racial microaggressions at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: Voices of students of color in the classroom Harwood, Choi, Orozco, Browne Huntt, & Mendenhall | 2015
Thirty-nine percent (39%) of students of color reported feeling uncomfortable on campus because of their race. Fifty-one percent (51%) reported experiences of stereotyping in the classroom, and 27% reported feeling that their contributions in different learning contexts were minimized and that they were made to feel inferior because of the way they spoke. Twenty-five percent (25%) reported feeling that they were not taken seriously in class because of their race.
The double bind: The price of being a minority woman in science Malcom, Hall, & Brown | 1976
Seminal report documented women of color as the most underrepresented individuals in STEM fields.
Critical Race Theory, Racial Microaggressions, and the Experience of Chicana and Chicano Scholars Solarzano | 1998
Racial and gender microaggressions and incidents were reported by Latinx graduate students who felt out of place because of their race and/or gender, or who felt their professors had lower expectations for them.
The effect of instructor race and gender of student persistence in STEM fields Price | 2010
Black students are more likely to persist in a STEM major if they have a STEM course taught by a Black instructor.
The Long-Run Impacts of Same-Race Teachers Institute of Labor Economics | 2017
Exposure to at least one Black teacher in grades 3-5 increases the likelihood that low-income boys and girls will aspire to attend a four-year college.
Computing Whether She Belongs: Stereotypes Undermine Girls’ Interest and Sense of Belonging in Computer Science Master, Cheryan, & Meltzoff | 2016
Computing classrooms with non-stereotypical environments create more inclusive signals of who belongs, which increases female high school student interest in computer science.
The role of stereotype threats in undermining girls’ and women’s performance and interest in STEM fields Shapiro & Williams | 2012
Stereotypes can undermine girls’ interest and performance in STEM.
The Role of Parents and Teachers in the Development of Gender-Related Math Attitudes Gunderson, Ramirez, Levine, & Beilock | 2011
Parent/teacher expectations for student math competence are often gender-biased, and can impact children's mathematics attitudes and achievement.
Images of Self and Others as Computer Users: The Role of Gender and Experience Mercier, Barron & O'Connor | 2006
Middle school students' perceptions of knowledgeable computer users were of male users frequently wearing glasses.
Math-Gender Stereotypes in Elementary School Children Cvencek, Meltzoff, & Greenwald | 2011
As early as second grade, children demonstrated the cultural stereotype that math is for boys on both implicit and explicit measures. The math– gender stereotype is acquired early and influences emerging math self-concepts prior to ages at which there are actual differences in math achievement.
Implications of Extracurricular Activity Participation During Adolescence on Positive Outcomes Zaff, Moore, Papillo, Williams | 2003
Consistent participation in extracurricular activities from 8th grade through 12th grade positively predicts academic achievement and prosocial behaviors in young adulthood.
Choosing a Summer Coding Camp That’s Right for Your Kids Locke | 2015
Coding and robotics camps can range in cost from $300-$5,000 per week, a burden for many low-income families (a sample list of programs and costs).
Searching for Computer Science: Access and Barriers in U.S. K-12 Education Google & Gallup | 2015
Black students, regardless of income, are significantly less likely than White or Hispanic students to have opportunities to learn computer science at school. Access to computer science classes and clubs is generally lowest for students from lower-income households.
Is AP Exam Participation and Performance Related to Choice of College Major? Mattern, Shaw & Ewing | 2011
Students who take AP Computer Science are 8x more likely to major in computer science.
Path Not Found: Disparities in Computer Science Course Access in California High Schools Martin, McAlear, & Scott | 2015
High-poverty and high-minority schools offer AP Computer Science A at a rate 12x lower than low-poverty and low-minority schools, resulting in lower participation rates among underrepresented students. Of the 560,874 high school students in the largest 20 California districts, just 1% (8,136) are enrolled in any computer science course.      
The STEM Teacher Drought: Cracks and Disparities in California’s Math and Science Teacher Pipeline Education Trust-West | 2015
Just 20% of students attending high-poverty schools have math teachers with full credentials and/or authorization to teach mathematics. Students in high-poverty or high-minority schools are much more likely to have science teachers with fewer than 2 years of experience than their counterparts (21% vs. 14%).
Inequality and the Right to Learn: Access to Qualified Teachers in California’s Public Schools Darling-Hammond | 2004
School funding disparities also contribute to disparities in teacher pay, experience, and qualifications, and extracurricular activities (e.g., art and music).
Williams et al. v. State of California et al San Francisco County Superior Court | 2000
Students attending high-poverty schools have less access to computers, internet connected classrooms, and science labs than their more advantaged peers.
Funding Gaps 2015: Too Many States Still Spend Less on Educating Students Who Need it the Most The Education Trust | 2015
The highest poverty districts in our country receive about $1,200 less per student than the lowest poverty districts. The differences are even larger — roughly $2,000 per student — between districts serving the most students of color and those serving the fewest.
10 Lessons First Round Capital | 2015
Experience at top tech companies is predictive of success as a founder, and founding teams with experience at any of those tech companies also landed pre-money valuations nearly 50% larger than their peers. This experience is a signal to investors that individuals have already been “pre-screened.”
Think Leader, Think White? Capturing and Weakening an Implicit Pro-White Leadership Bias GUNDEMIR, HOMAN, DE DREU, VAN VUGT | 2016
In ratings of potential and effectiveness, there are implicit pro-White, anti-minority biases.
We Ask Men to Win & Women Not to Lose: Closing the Gender Gap in Startup Funding Kanze, Huang, Conley & Higgins | 2017
Women are asked about ways they intend to prevent loss when interviewed for venture capital; men are asking questions which support their premises, the effects of which contribute to a five-fold difference in male vs. female founders who are funded by investors/venture capitalists.
Venture Capital Human Capital Report CB Insights | 2010
African American founders receive just 1% of VC-backed entrepreneurs and women founders account for only 8% of VC-backed entrepreneurs.
Investors prefer entrepreneurial ventures pitched by attractive men Brooks, Huang, Kearney & Murray | 2014
Investors are significantly more likely to prefere entrepreneurial pitches by men when compared to women, even when the content of the pitch is the same.
Social Networks and Entrepreneurship Stuart & Sorenson | 2005
Social networks influence the success of the entrepreneurial process, including the connections needed to mobilize the capital needed to start companies, alertness to opportunities, and endorsements.
Network Ties, Reputation, and the Financing of New Ventures Shane & Cable | 2002
Social ties, including direct personal relationships with investors or indirect relationships through a third party, are significantly positively related to the decision to invest in a company.
Handbook on Research in Entrepreneurship Education, Volume 1 Fayolle | 2007
Broad compendium of articles on posesecondary entrepreneurship education with suggestions for new directions and reforms, including using interdiscipinary curricula, better frameworks to understand cultural and gender challenges in entrepreneurial research, and new innovations in entrepreneurship pedagogies and teaching risk-taking competence.
African-Americans: College Majors and Earnings Carnevale, Fasules, Porter & Landis-Santos | 2016
Black students are overrepresented in low-earning potential college majors and underrepresented in higher earning STEM majors.
Diversity Data Dashboard University of California, Berkeley | 2017
UC Berkeley produces the most VC-backed tech founders. Yet, only 3% of U.C. Berkeley's undergraduate population is African American and 14% is Latinx.
Top 50 Universities Report, 2017-18 Edition Stanford, Hammond & Sam | 2017
Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley are the #1 and #2 producers of venture-backed entrepreneurs since 2006. Since the vast majority of founders come from these institutions (which lack diversity), there are restricted networks and access for diverse entrepreneurs.
Elephant in the Valley Survey Elephant in the Valley | 2016
60% of women reported unwanted sexual advances, and 65% of these were from a superior.
Investors and startup founders think tech’s diversity problem will solve itself Fairchild | 2016
Study on sexism and racism among startup founders and investors and perceptions of the importance of diversity and inclusion in investment decisions. Senior investing teams are 98% white and Asian, and de-prioritize diversity and inclusion initiatives in the companies they fund.
Stereotype threat: An overview. Excerpts and adaptations from stereotypethreat.org Stroessner & Good | 2011
A synthesis of research on stereotype threat, its impact, consequences, and interventions.
Through the labyrinth: The truth about how women become leaders Eagly & Carli | 2008
Being a numerical minority in the workplace can activate gender stereotypes and produce stereotype threat.
Entrepreneurship and Risk Aversion Kan & Tsai | 2005
Wealth is positively and significantly related to the decision to pursue entrepreneurship and liquidity constraints exclude those with insufficient funds at their disposal.
Black-white disparity in student loan debt more than triples after graduation Scott-Clayton & Li | 2016
Four years after graduation, Black college graduates have nearly double the amount of student loan debt White graduates hold. The Black-White debt disparity triples after graduation.
The Asset Value of Whiteness: Understanding the Racial Wealth Gap Traub, Sullivan, Meschede & Shapiro | 2017
Drawing upon historical economic analyses, the majority of the racial wealth gap in the US. can be explained by the generations of economic exclusion of non-white people from education and wealth building activities. As long as a substantial racial wealth gap persists, white households will continue to enjoy greater advantages than Blacks and Latinos and will be able to make greater investments in their children passing economic advantages on.
Gender differences in recommendation letters for postdoctoral fellowships in geoscience Dutt, Pfaff, Bernstein, Dillard & Block | 2016
In the sciences, women are less likely to receive positive recommendation letters or to be hired for lab positions than males.
Gender Differences and Bias in Open Source: Pull Request Acceptance of Women Versus Men Terrell , Kofink, Middleton, Rainear, Murphy-Hill, Parnin, & Stallings | 2017
Comparing acceptance rates of contributions from men versus women in an open source software community, women’s acceptance rates are higher only when they are not identifiable as women.
A public school sends more grads to Silicon Valley tech giants than any Ivy League school Robinson | 2017
The majority of employees from large top tech companies are from top-ranking universities, including Stanford and Berkeley, limiting geographic, racial, and economic diversity.
Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students Moss-Racusin, Dovidio, Brescoll, Graham & Handelsman | 2002
Science faculty rated male applicants as more competent, hireable, and offered a higher starting salary to male versus female applicants for lab positions.
Race, Religion, and Political Affiliation of Americans’ Core Social Networks Cox, Navarro-Rivera, & Jones | 2016
75% of white American adults have no friends from different racial backgrounds, compared to 65% of Black Americans. 91% of the average White American’s friends are also White, compared to 83% of Blacks and 64% of Latinos.
College Major Choice in STEM: Revisiting Confidence and Demographic Factors Moakler, Kim & Minsun | 2014
Having parents who are employed in STEM occupations is significant predictor of students choosing STEM majors.
Structural Racism and Health Inequities Gee & Ford | 2011
A review of conceptualizing structural racism, with a focus on social segregation, immigration policy, and intergenerational effects, as causes of health disparities.
Are motherhood penalties and fatherhood bonuses warranted? Comparing pro-work behaviors and conditions of mothers, fathers, and non-parents Kmec | 2010
Motherhood penalties (in wages, hiring, promotion, perception of commitment, etc.) are not warranted; mothers are no different than non-parents on a host of work-related outcomes.
Black-white disparity in student loan debt more than triples after graduation Scott-Clayton & Li | 2016
Black college graduates have nearly double the amount of student loan debt White graduates hold.
Getting a job: Is there a motherhood penalty? Correll, Benard, & Paik | 2007
Compared to equally-qualified men with children and women without children, working mothers are less likely to be rated as competent, interviewed, hired, and promoted and paid equally.
Through the Labyrinth: The Truth about how Women Become Leaders Eagly & Carly | 2007
Being a numerical minority at work can activate gender stereotypes and produce stereotype threat.
Stereotype threat: Antecedents and consequences for working women VonHippel, Issa, Ma, & Stokes | 2010
Stereotype threat is negatively associated with workplace attitudes and turnover intentions.
Stereotype Threat and Women’s Performance in Engineering Bell, Spencer, Iselman & Logel | 2003
Women perform worse than men on the Fundamentals of Engineering exam when stereotype threat is activated--when the test is described as indicative of ability. When the test is described as non-diagnostic, men and women perform equally well.
The Simple Truth about the Gender Pay Gap AAUW | 2017
The earnings ratio of women to White men, by ethnicity is: Asian (85%), White (75%), Black (63%), Hispanic (54%).
Why Women Leave Tech: Its the Culture, Not Because Math is Hard Snyder | 2014
Stories from 716 women who left tech show that the industry’s culture is the primary culprit, not any issues related to STEM education.
Why Diversity Matters Hunt, Layton & Prince | 2015
The lack of diversity in homogenous workplaces leads to turnover and difficulty recruiting.
Tech Leavers Study Scott, Kapor & Onovakpuri | 2017
Unfair workplace experiences contribute to turnover, with 37% leaving due to unfair treatment. Men of color were most likely to leave due to unfairness (40%). Women in tech experienced significantly more unfairness than men, women of color were most likely to be passed over for promotion than any other group (30%), LGTBQ professionals were more likely to experience bullying than any other group (20%), and people of color were 2x as likely to experience stereotyping than majority group members (24% vs. 12%).
Women in the Workplace McKinsey & LeanIn.org | 2016
For every 100 women promoted, 130 men are promoted from entry level positions. Women are less likely to have access to senior leaders, receive less challenging assignments, and participate in key meetings.
Gender Differences in Advancing to the Top Tharenou | 1999
Companies with male-dominated leadership are less likely to promote women into leadership positions than companies with a high proportion of female leaders.
Racial Bias in the Manager-Employee Relationship: An Analysis of Quits, Dismissals, and Promotions at a Large Retail Firm Giuliano, Levin & Leonard | 2009
Own-race bias demonstrated in promotion of employees, where employees with the same race as their managers are more likely to receive promotions and less likely to have negative outcomes.
For Clues on Silicon Valley’s Future Diversity, Look at the Interns Albright | 2015
Technology companies tend to recruit interns from the same set of elite universities.
Why Doesn’t Google Hire Black Coders? Vari | 2016
An examination of CS curriculum at HBCUs and how the students learn CS theory but not the practical skills that matter in Silicon Valley.
Culturally responsive computing: A theory revised Scott, Sheridan, & Clark | 2014
Theoretical article defining and building on tenets of culturally responsive computing.
Computing Whether She Belongs: Stereotypes Undermine Girls’ Interest and Sense of Belonging in Computer Science Master, Cheryan, & Meltzoff | 2016
Computing classrooms with non-stereotypical environments create more inclusive signals of who belongs, which increase female high school student interest in computer science.
The role of stereotype threats in undermining girls’ and women’s performance and interest in STEM fields Shapiro & Williams | 2012
Stereotypes can undermine girls’ interest and performance in STEM.
Coping with negative stereotypes about intellectual performance: The role of psychological disengagement Major, Spencer, Wolfe, & Crocker | 1998
Chronic disengagement and racial priming engender less responsivity to negative performance feedback among African American students, but not White students.
The Effects of Stereotype Threat and Double-Minority Status on the Test Performance of Latino Women Gonzalez, Blanton, & Williams | 2002
Both a gender-based and an ethnicity-based stereotype-threat effect were found to influence performance on a mathematics test.
The effect of instructor race and gender of student persistence in STEM fields Price | 2010
Black students are more likely to persist in a STEM major if they have a STEM course taught by a Black instructor.
Diversifying science: Underrepresented students experiences in structured research programs Hurtado, Cabrera, Lin, Arellano, & Espinosa | 2009
Support from peers in STEM degree programs may offset some of the academic and domain racial stigmas that underrepresented students experience in STEM.
STEMing the tide: using ingroup experts to inoculate women’s self-concept in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) Stout, Dasgupta, Hunsinger, & McManus | 2011
Exposure to female STEM experts promoted positive implicit attitudes and stronger implicit identification with STEM, greater self-efficacy in STEM, and more effort on STEM tests.
Teacher Expectations Matter Papageorge, Gershenson, & Kang | 2016
Teachers’ expectations have causal impacts on the likelihood that students complete a college degree.
National differences in gender–science stereotypes predict national sex differences in science and math achievement Nosek et al. | 2009
Approximately 70% of more than half a million Implicit Association Tests completed by citizens of 34 countries revealed implicit stereotypes associating science with males more than with females.
The Associated Press Racial Attitudes Survey Associated Press | 2012
While explicit racism has declined over the past few decades, studies estimate that more than 50% of White individuals hold implicit anti-Black and/or anti-Latinx sentiments.
The Roots of the Widening Racial Wealth Gap: Explaining the Black-White Economic Divide Shapiro, Meschede & Osoro | 2013
Costs at public universities have risen 60% in 20 years, with many low-income and students of color forced to work instead of attending college or to work part-time to pay for college.
Black-white disparity in student loan debt more than triples after graduation Scott-Clayton & Li | 2016
By the time of graduation, Black college graduates have nearly double the amount of student loan debt White graduates hold.
Path Not Found: Disparities in Access to Computer Science Courses in California High Schools Martin, McAlear, & Scott | 2015
Nearly 75% of CA high schools with the highest percentage of underrepresented students of color offer no computer science courses. Schools attended by low-income students and students of color are 12x less likely to offer CS courses.
Why Students Choose STEM Majors Wang | 2013
Exerting the largest impact on STEM entrance, intent to major in STEM is directly affected by 12th-grade math achievement, exposure to math and science courses, and math self-efficacy beliefs
The double bind: The next generation Malcom & Malcom | 2011
Building on the landmark original Double Bind report, this article describes pathways used by women of color entering STEM, their patterns of advancement, and theories of how best to support women of color in STEM fields.
Differences in Experiences of Racial and Ethnic Microaggression among Asian, Latino/Hispanic, Black, and White Young Adults Forrest-Bank & Jenson | 2015
Young adults of color report significantly higher rates of microaggressive experiences when compared to White young adults.
Enduring Influence of Stereotypical Computer Science Role Models on Women’s Academic Aspirations Cheryan, Drury, & Vichayapai | 2012
Stereotypical computer science role models have a negative effect on women’s interest in computing.
The Importance of Minority teachers: Student Perceptions of Minority Versus White teachers Cherng & Halpin | 2016
Students of color have more favorable perceptions of teachers of color over White teachers.
Signaling Threat: How Situational Cues Affect Women in Math, Science, and Engineering Settings Murphy, Steele, & Gross | 2007
Unbalanced gender representation in a science and engineering environment leads to lower belonging and future interest.
Ambient belonging: how stereotypical cues impact gender participation in computer science Cheryan, Plaut, Davies & Steele | 2009
When stereotypes about computing are present, girls and women (but not boys and men) believe that they are dissimilar from those in the field and report a lower “sense of belonging,” or feeling of fit with the culture of computing.
Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans Steele & Aronson | 1995
The threat of confirming a negative stereotype about one’s group can lead to decreased academic performance, internal attributions for failure, reduced sense of belonging in stereotyped domains, disengagement and disidentification, and altered professional identities and aspirations.
The Stereotypical Computer Scientist: Gendered Media Representations as a Barrier to Inclusion for Women Cheryan, Plaut, Handron & Hudson | 2013
Computer scientists were perceived as having traits that were incompatible with the female gender role, including lacking interpersonal skills, hyper focused on computers.
Cultural stereotypes as gatekeepers: increasing girls’ interest in computer science and engineering by diversifying stereotypes Cheryan, Master & Meltzoff | 2015
Students hold perceptions of computer scientists as “male” and with stereotypical “geeky” attributes who are socially awkward and infatuated with technology.
Who Believes in Me? The Effect of Student–Teacher Demographic Match on Teacher Expectations Gershenson, Holt, & Papageorge | 2016
Non-Black teachers of Black students have significantly lower expectations for student success than do Black teachers. These effects are larger for Black male students and math teachers.
Inequity Outside the Classroom: Growing Class Differences in Participation in Extracurricular Activities Snellman, Silva, & Putnam | 2015
Low-income families lack access to valuable extracurricular opportunities. Program fees disproportionately disadvantage children from families who earn less than $60,000 per year, as 19 percent of these parents reported that their children’s participation dropped because of the cost.
Algebra for Everyone? Benefits of College-Preparatory Mathematics for Students with Diverse Abilities in Early Secondary School Gamoran & Hannigan | 2000
Access to algebra coursework increases mathematics performance, including those with very low prior achievement, suggesting that all students benefit from access to Algebra, a gatekeeper mathematics course.
Taking Root: The LAUSD/ECS Partnership Story Margolis & Bernier | 2014
Beyond simply providing access to AP courses, research demonstrated the need for a new course to introduce students to computer science and computational thinking in a way that was engaging for a diverse group of students.
New Vital Signs Data: Access to Challenging STEM Courses Change the Equation | 2017
Nationally, one in four Latino students and nearly one third of black high schoolers attend schools that did not offer calculus. Twice as many black students (23%) lack access to Physics courses in their high schools than white students (11%).
Stayers, Movers, and Leavers National Center for Education Statistics | 2015
Teachers from low-income schools are twice as likely to turnover than teachers from low-poverty schools (12% vs 6% each year), leading to vacancies, instability, and difficulty replacing quality teachers.
Not Prepared for Class: High Poverty Schools Continue to Have Fewer In-Field Teachers Education Trust | 2010
High poverty secondary schools are twice as likely (22%) as affluent schools (11%) to have out-of-field teachers (teachers without the relevant certification or major). A quarter of the math classes in high poverty high schools are taught by out-of-field teachers.
Teacher Quality and Student Achievement Darling-Hammond | 2000
Teacher preparation is by far the strongest predictor of achievement in math and reading.
High Hopes-Few Opportunities: The Status of Elementary Science Education in California WestEd Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning | 2011
Elementary teachers serving predominantly low income students cited lack of school facilities as a major challenge to science instruction at nearly three times the rate of teachers serving affluent students (35% vs. 13%). Principals in the state's poorest schools reported starting new science initiatives in their schools at less than half the rate (33%) of principals in affluent schools (68%).
Pew Internet Survey: Digital Differences Pew Research Center | 2012
71% of White households have broadband internet access at home, while only 51% and 54% of African American and Latinx households do. Just 46% of households making under $30K per year have access to the internet at home, and just 45% of Black families have computers at home.