Women’s Attraction to Coding Boot Camps

Abstract

The underrepresentation of women along the entire computer science (CS) pipeline has been an intractable problem. The relatively high proportion of women attending “coding boot camps”—35%, as compared to 14% in CS university programs—would suggest that CS is of interest in the postsecondary female population. Yet little is known about the profile of women attending these camps and the type of expertise they are learning in the setting. This qualitative work attempts to address this gap by investigating the backgrounds of nine women in two boot camp settings. The research focuses on what they are learning in each environment and how these skills align with the routine to adaptive expertise continuum. Findings from this study may indicate ways in which women may be recruited into public postsecondary institutions to study or major in CS.