5 Quotes by Enobong Hannah Branch

The pipeline assumes a passive flow of women (and men) from one stage to the next culminating in a scientific career.

Training for and pursuing a career in science can be treacherous for women; many more begin than ultimately complete at every stage. Characterizing this as a pipeline problem, however, leads to a focus on individual women instead of structural conditions.

Strikingly, women who pass all of their introductory-level IT classes are still less likely to enter an IT major than men who fail. Failure is a significant obstacle for men but even failing an introductory-level class is not as much of a deterrent as being a woman.

They expect that potential employers and coworkers will attempt to measure their commitment and competence through their participation in stereotypically masculine activities, such as tinkering (Margolis and Fisher 2003; McIlwee and Robinson 1994).

Women who persist in computing, and in STEM fields more generally, demonstrate remarkable agency that the passivity of the pipeline ignores.