User:Peinini/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Diversity in computing

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article because I believe it's relevant to the course as it talks about how the computing sector lacks diversity of underrepresented groups, such as women, people of color, individuals with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ individuals. As a women of color going into the technology sector, I believe it's incredibly important to address this lack of diversity as everyone deserves the opportunity to work in the computing sector and feel a sense of inclusion and belonging. Additionally, having more diversity within the tech field can encourage different perspectives on problems and lead to more innovative and unique solutions compared to a homogenous team. Additionally, a diverse workforce can result in the the start of projects or initiatives that have social significance.

Evaluate the article
The lead section is well done: it has an introductory sentence that clearly defines the article's topic, which is followed up by a short statement about the current problem associated with the topic. Additionally, reading through the entire lead section provides a good overview of the article without it being too overly detailed and overwhelming. Each point in the lead is expanded upon later in the article. There was one grammatical mistake though.

Because the article is directly addressing the lack of representation of historically underrepresented groups, I would say it deals with one of Wikipedia's equity gaps. The article is up-to-date as it is including statistics from 2022 about the current workplace diversity in tech, emphasizing the occupational disparities and educational disparities within tech in terms of both gender and race. The statistics also highlighted the gender and racial discrimination experienced by women and people of color. However, the article didn't really take an intersectional viewpoint and go more in depth about the experiences of specific groups, such as Black women or Asian men. Additionally, the article provided statistics about respondents' sex and any mental disorders they had, but didn't provide any connection or explanation about why they included those statistics, then jumping back into statistics about gender discrimination in terms of promotions. The statistics about sex/sexuality and mental disorders were also taken from a survey on Stack Overflow, which I believe does not encapsulate a good sample size of those working in tech. If it did, they should have provided more background on the respondents of the survey. There should have also been statistics talking about disabilities since that was what the intro section brought up.

The article is neutral and does not seem to be biased towards a particular position. However, some sources they cite are from random tech-focused websites/blogs, so I'm not really sure if they are reliable. Checking out a few of those websites though, it seems as if they do cite from reputable sources, such as citing statistics from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and pulling direct statements and reports from big tech companies, such as Facebook's Annual Diversity Report. Other than those sources, the author primarily cites from many peer-reviewed papers/studies.

I believe the article is fairly well written and provides important information without it being too long and overwhelming, which made it easy to read through. I think the article was organized sensibly into sections based on topics of discussion mentioned in the intro section--each section was able to effectively expand upon each point made. For example, I really liked how the article listed out clear intervention methods that have been researched and shown to work in increasing diversity, and how they also cited from the AAUW in listing out methods educators can try to cultivate confidence in underrepresented individuals interested in the field of computing. I believe these numbered lists are more digestible and can help readers reflect on how they can incorporate those practices into their day-to-day. The article also points to a lot other article that I think are relevant and helpful to go through. There are definitely areas of improvement for the article, as I think the topic itself is very nuanced and a lot of the points mentioned can be developed upon further. The article can definitely reference better sources by historically marginalized authors who can provide more in-depth insights about the fundamental source underlying diversity issues and the institutions supporting certain power dynamics, etc.. I think this was a great surface level article primarily introducing the problem and backing that up with statistics, and providing some actions employers and educators can take to help increase diversity within computing.