Gender inequality in STEM fields, particularly in computer science, remains a significant challenge, characterized by fluctuating female participation rates and high attrition. This study explores gendered career trajectories of computer science bachelor's degree holders in India and the United States, integrating survival analysis and sequence analysis on large-scale LinkedIn data. The results challenge the prevailing research focus on women exiting computing occupations; instead, they reveal that women exhibit significantly lower occupational mobility compared to their male counterparts. Findings indicate a "sorting story" rather than an "exiting story," as women are less likely to switch occupational types frequently. Specifically, they tend to start their careers in non-technical computing and non-computing roles, with no statistically significant gender effects observed on exiting technical computing positions. Moreover, women are more often sorted into career paths where technical computing is neither dominant nor a common exit point. Among those who remain in technical computing, women predominantly occupy test-and-support roles, underscoring the need to shift the focus of research toward understanding the dynamics of career sorting.
About the speaker
Yuqi Liang is a PhD candidate at the Department of Sociology, University of Oxford. She is a computational social scientist whose research interests lie in economic sociology, gender and socio-economic inequality, as well as methodological development using emerging quantitative and computational techniques.
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