The Gender Wage Gap in Computing: An Intersectional Decomposition Analysis

• In Event: 446 - Section on Sex and Gender Paper Session. Science, Technology, and Medicine: Dimensions of Gender, Sex, and Sexualities

Abstract

Women have decreased as a percentage of computing workers from a high of 38% in the late 1980’s to roughly 20% in recent years. Tech companies and federal agencies are now involved in efforts to attract more women to computing but much of the research supporting these efforts is not attentive to differences in rewards that women and men may receive for their work. This paper uses data from the American Community Survey to decompose wages for computing workers. Rather than examining gender alone, this study is attentive to racialized and nationalized differences among men and women. Decomposition analysis shows that women suffer gendered wage penalties in computing, though these penalties vary by race and nation of origin. Efforts to recruit women to computing may be stymied if women’s computing work is not valued or if women who do enter computing are discouraged away from the best paying jobs.

Author

• Sharla N. Alegria, University of Massachusetts-Amherst