Identity Formation of Precollege Women in Quantum Information Science and Technology

The rapid increase in technological advancements in quantum information science and technology (QIST) necessitates a diverse workforce. The need for understanding how students, especially young women, develop QIST identity is an important consideration in career aspiration formation. With no existing framework for QIST identity development, this qualitative longitudinal exploratory case study combined aspects of identity frameworks in the QIST-adjacent fields of physics, computer science, engineering, and mathematics into a new framework to identify factors influencing QIST identity development for precollege women. This framework was inductively generated from the analysis of 20 interviews with women from a high school QIST outreach program that was developed by university quantum researchers. The first round of interviews (N = 14) was conducted two to four weeks after the conclusion of the QIST workshops and focused on student attitudes towards QIST, while the second round of interviews (N = 6) was conducted six to eighteen months later and focused on emerging elements of the QIST identity framework. Analysis of the interviews showed that the proposed framework, which included performance/competence, interest, recognition, and sense of belonging—found in identity frameworks of QIST-adjacent fields—required the addition of (1) normative comparison, (2) positional advantage, and (3) career expectancy.