Envisioning Digital Sanctuaries: An Exploration of Virtual Collectives for Nurturing Professional Development of Women in Technical Domains

Work and learning are essential facets of our existence, yet socio-cultural barriers may limit access and opportunity in such contexts. Historically, women have faced multiple restrictions that have hindered their entry into professional ventures, many of which have also plagued the technical domains of Information technology and Computer science. Hence, it is essential to investigate how women can subvert such structural subjugation and can find channels through which they can seek support, and guidance and develop collective endurance to navigate their careers. In this regard, virtual communities (e.g., Reddit) have emerged as crucial spaces that allow community building, and opportunities for mobilizing collective action and have also emerged as sanctuaries for support and companionship. Thus, this proposed dissertation aims to focus on how these spaces are used and adopted by women for resilience building and navigating goals, aspirations, and tensions in crafting their professional journey in technical domains. The layers of analysis will include understanding the present conversational patterns in three subreddits dedicated to professional development, and design exploration to better unpack how such channels can be envisioned in the future to more deeply align the affordances of such channels with the values of these virtual spaces. The long-term goal for this work is to address the way in which such channels can be designed and curated to offer spaces for enrichment, empowerment, and advocacy with a focus on professional development for women, especially for those engaged in technical domains.