Abstract:
The U.S. government has called for more STEM professionals in order to remain competitive as a nation. Increased participation of women and minorities in these fields wil...Show MoreMetadata
Abstract:
The U.S. government has called for more STEM professionals in order to remain competitive as a nation. Increased participation of women and minorities in these fields will capture the rich diversity of their lived experiences and contributions. Many studies examine these issues for women or minorities, but less frequently consider the intersection of gender and race. There have been quantitative studies conducted in recent years that attempt to capture why women leave engineering. However, they lack the rich description at the intersection of race and gender necessary to understand the impetus to leave engineering industry. Identity theory is the theoretical framework utilized for understanding how engineering industry culture fits with how these women see themselves and feel like they belong or do not belong in engineering. Identity theory can illustrate the meanings that Black women attribute to themselves as engineers and how they negotiate their perceived membership in engineering based on interpretations of status differences, legitimacy and stability of those status differences. This paper presents insight in to methods of data collection, analysis process, and preliminary research results.
Published in: 2015 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)
Date of Conference: 21-24 October 2015
Date Added to IEEE Xplore: 07 December 2015
Print ISBN:978-1-4799-8454-1