Organizational Pathways to Gender Equity: A Comparative Case Study of Broadening Participation in STEM Graduate Education

• In Event: Navigating the STEM Environment: Perspectives and Experiences of Students, Faculty, and Staff

Abstract

This comparative case study examines four STEM graduate programs that have, for the last five years, awarded significantly more Ph.D’s to women or students from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups than the national average for their discipline, in spite of being located in states with affirmative action bans. Guided by attribution and institutionalization theories, findings indicate that faculty and staff in these programs (applied physics, chemistry, civil engineering, and psychology) attribute the changes in enrollment primarily to one of four organizational pathways: reinvention, intention, unintended consequence, and statistical illusion. We use these pathways and their intersections to develop propositions that can guide hypothesis and intervention development.

Authors

• Aurora Kamimura, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• Julie Renee Posselt, University of Michigan

• Kamaria B. Porter, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor