Pushing Past or Defending the Gender Boundary in Engineering: Who Supports or Deters Girls' Aspirations?

• In Event: Gender Equity and STEM

Abstract

This mixed-methods study utilizes a sample of high school girls across the country who participate in the Society of Women Engineers’ (SWE) SWENext program to examine who is most supportive of girls’ engineering aspirations, and whose actions work to maintain the gender boundary and restrict girls’ (full) entry into engineering. Results reveal that young women report high levels of engineering support from multiple sources, including parents and teachers of both genders, and female peers (friends and clubmates). Yet experiences with male classmates and clubmates diverge from the others. Interviews reveal that male peers implicitly or explicitly make it known that girls are not welcomed, and in doing so, defend the status quo, maintaining engineering as (their) male-dominated space.

Authors

• Ursula Nguyen, The University of Texas at Austin

• Catherine C. Riegle-Crumb, The University of Texas

• Tatiane Russo-Tait, The University of Texas at Austin

• Katherine Doerr, The University of Texas at Austin