Puerto Rican Women in Tech: Unsettling Bias and Navigating Technical Careers

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session One
  In Roundtable Session: Dismantling Oppression in Higher Education (Table 10)

Abstract

Learning experiences designed to expand women's notions of who they can become in engineering are consequential for how women navigate non-traditional career trajectories. In this study we strive to understand how women who participated in a long-term federally funded program at a major university in Puerto Rico further education and careers in technical fields. We bring the concepts of identity and community of practice to bear on this study of 14 women who were former participants in PROGRAM from 2008 through 2016, an effort designed to support Latinas’ recruitment, retention, and advancement to the professoriate in computer engineering and electrical engineering.

Authors

• Sarah Taylor Hug, Colorado Evaluation & Research Consulting
  Presenting Author

• Heather L. Thiry, University of Colorado - Boulder
  Presenting Author