Defining a Discipline or Shaping a Community: Constraints on Broadening Participation in Computing.

Understanding how to increase participation and continued persistence of women in computing is a perennial problem. This paper explores the ways in which participation in computing can be defined either by a narrow disciplinary practice framework or a more expansive social practice framework. How participation in computing is defined is consequential regarding our understanding of 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. Analyses of the interviews show that defining participation in computing from a disciplinary perspective 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.