  Women and people of color remain dramatically underrepresented among
computing faculty, and improvements in demographic diversity are slow and
uneven. Effective diversification strategies depend on quantifying the
correlates, causes, and trends of diversity in the field. But field-level
demographic changes are driven by subfield hiring dynamics because faculty
searches are typically at the subfield level. Here, we quantify and forecast
variations in the demographic composition of the subfields of computing using a
comprehensive database of training and employment records for 6882 tenure-track
faculty from 269 PhD-granting computing departments in the United States,
linked with 327,969 publications. We find that subfield prestige correlates
with gender inequality, such that faculty working in computing subfields with
more women tend to hold positions at less prestigious institutions. In
contrast, we find no significant evidence of racial or socioeconomic
differences by subfield. Tracking representation over time, we find steady
progress toward gender equality in all subfields, but more prestigious
subfields tend to be roughly 25 years behind the less prestigious subfields in
gender representation. These results illustrate how the choice of subfield in a
faculty search can shape a department's gender diversity.
