SSTEM Successes and Challenges: Engineering Identity Development for Women in Computer, Electrical, and Software Engineering

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 66
  In Roundtable Session: Learning and Development Through STEM

Abstract

While women are enrolling in postsecondary education in high numbers, their enrollment in computer, electrical, and software engineering fields remains low. Part of the challenges women face is a struggle in developing a professional identity as an engineer. This study examined the experiences of undergraduate women in computer, electrical, and software engineering involved with a National Science Foundation Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Program (S-STEM) Program. This study found that students developed their professional identities through their interactions with the program’s associated faculty and women peers. Challenges in identity development emerged when the program’s women were asked to re-enter more traditional, masculine engineering spaces and when participants were forced to negotiate multiple, intersecting identities during their engineering experiences.

Authors

• Sarah Rodriguez, Iowa State University

• Kelly Cunningham, Iowa State University

• Nia Estes