Projects & Research

This synthesis project is conducting an in-depth investigation of literature from the past 20 years (2000-2019), identifying promising practices for increasing engagement and retention of minority women in technology and computing higher education and career pathways. The project with also broadly disseminate findings and recommendations to decision-makers and leaders in the professional and academic fields of technology and computing. The project’s main question is: What factors affect the experiences, participation, and advancement of women of color in technology and computing from the stages of early college education through their careers? The goals of the project are to:

1. build new knowledge and understanding of the factors affecting the retention of women of color in technology and computing;
2. identify gaps in research;
3. inform leaders in the field about promising policies and practices that retain women of color in technology and computing; and
4. make methodological contributions through the testing and refinement of meta-synthesis tools and processes.

LASOW is a systematic synthesis project that is analyzing and integrating the findings from empirical research on the factors that affect the retention of women of color in technology and computing higher education and careers. Its main research activities include:

• refining and testing systematic synthesis methods;
• systematically searching the empirical literature on women of color in computing and technology;
• appraising the quality of the literature for their inclusion in the synthesis;
• developing a synthesis of the literature; and
• developing recommendations for the field about promising policies and practices.

This project informs areas for future research and helps to identify promising practices that others can implement. The project will result in a report to help inform those who are practitioners in STEM education, STEM employers, and STEM policy makers.