How Social Capital Acquired Through Professional Engineering Organizations Affects Women and Underrepresented Minority Undergraduates' Persistence

• In Event: Women, Underrepresented Minority, and LGBTQPIA+ Students' STEM Experiences and Success: Undergraduate Climate and Social Capital

Abstract

1. Objectives or purposes
Engineering culture is often unwelcoming and exclusionary for women and underrepresented minority students (URMs) in undergraduate programs. They are often subjected to overt sexism, racism, discrimination, stereotyping, and isolation. Professional engineering organizations (PEOs) have the potential to provide women and underrepresented minorities (URMs) with social capital (i.e., resources gained from relationships) that aids their persistence in their engineering undergraduate programs. This research examines how the persistence of women and URM students is influenced by the social capital they acquire from their participation in the chapters of PEOs on their college campuses. We hypothesized that women and URM students who participate in PEOs are more likely to persist to their fifth year.

2. Perspective(s) or theoretical framework
We focus on how social capital as accessed through social relationships/networks and how it is accessed and activated by individuals who recognize structural barriers. We also extend previous work on student involvement theory and the theory of student departure that assert that higher levels of student involvement and integration in campus life lead to improved student learning outcomes and persistence.

3. Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry
We developed five surveys. The first survey collected data on participants’ entry social capital, the subsequent four surveys measured the social capital acquired while they were enrolled in their engineering programs. Survey items asked students (egos) about their participation in PEOs/societies and other engineering-related activities and programs what they gleaned from such engagement. We used logistic regression to analyze the survey data and thematic analysis to analyze responses to the open-ended items.

4. Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials
Surveys were administered annually to a cohort of engineering undergraduates (n>2000) recruited from 11 diverse universities including PWIs, an HBCU, and HSIs.

5. Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view
URM students who participated in PEOs were more likely to persist to the second year than URM students who did not (adjusted odds ratio =2.18, CI: 1.09, 4.37). Women and URM students believed that the social capital they acquired from participating in PEOs contributed to their persistence. African American students acquired social capital primarily from National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), Hispanic students primarily from industry-specific PEOs and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), and women primarily from the Society for Women Engineers (SWE). Forms of social capital that were identified using thematic analysis were social networking, accessing professional resources, reducing race/ethnic isolation (NSBE and SHPE), and reducing gender isolation (SWE).

6. Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work
Based on findings, we recommend that engineering programs encourage URM students to participate in PEOs beginning in their first year because it boosts their academic and social integration early, thereby increasing their persistence. This strategy will be successful only if engineering programs also transform their culture, which traditionally views the first (and sometimes second) year as the “weed out” period. This callous “weed out” culture is particularly harmful to women and URMs who often feel isolated.

Authors

• Chrystal A. S. Smith, University of Connecticut - Storrs

• Hesborn Otieno Wao, University of South Florida

• Gladis Kersaint, University of Connecticut - Storrs

• Rebecca A. Campbell-Montalvo, University of Connecticut - Storrs

• Phyllis Gray-Ray, Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University

• Ellen Puccia, Beta Research Associates, Inc.

• Julie P. Martin

• Reginald S. Lee, University of South Florida

• John Skvoretz, University of South Florida - Tampa

• George T. MacDonald, University of South Florida