Programming as a Helping Profession: Social implications of Big Data

I wish I could find the source I read it from, but basically, it is a not-uncommon-assertion that women are underrepresented in programming because women are generally interested in the so-called helping professions, and programming/CS is not generally perceived as a "helping profession." Now obviously we could haggle about why women are disproportionately represented in the "helping professions" (hint: socialization!), but the whole reason I bring this issue up is that I want to make this post about a case where something perceived as very mechanistic and soulless technology does in fact have social implications in an unexpected direction. (Here's an older blog post from EduCause Review about this whole "helping-professions" suggestion, in case you missed it the first time around.)

So now I'm all attuned to "how can tech fields actually function to address social issues, beyond building websites for nonprofits?" Trying to keep an eye out for examples, and a couple of weeks ago, The Atlantic ran the article How Big Data Harms Poor Communities, which is a good start. At first, I was all, "OK, great, someone took a buzzword and problematized it. Next article." But it actually makes some good and non-obvious points.

The author's contention is that Big Data gets disproportionately collected on poor communities, particularly with the indigent and those with run-ins with the law (cue Urban Camping ban controversy, here in Denver, for instance). Moreover, because of how that data is managed (e.g., badly), old data, including that which should have been expunged, may persist, and may impact the lives of real people in the real world, for instance, by impacting credit availability. The author's conclusion is, basically, that without human oversight, Big Data, rather than (or in addition to) providing all the benefits that have been promised, can contribute to systems of oppression that keep poor people trapped in a cycle of poverty and lack-of-opportunity.

Now, can only women do "helping profession"-style programming? Obviously not. But I thought this post was worth sharing, if only for me, as a reminder of one way in which programming can be a tool for social justice, beyond, say, making websites for nonprofits. As I find more examples, I'll try to remember to slap 'em up here. As a fledgling programmer myself, it is good for me to start building a model in my head of how, concretely, programming can be a socially-useful tool, rather than one solely or primarily for military, corporate, or edutainment purposes. (And I don't mention scientific applications anywhere here, because those positions are obviously cool, although they can be more rarefied and abstracted, as well.) And not that women can't be interested in those fields, but the research to date suggests that more women would (might?) be interested in programming/CS with more of a social-good application.