A “Chilly Climate” With Engineering Faculty: Implications for Women’s Engineering Identity and Thoughts About Leaving

• In Event: Understanding How to Support Women in Academia

Abstract

Utilizing a unique sample of over 500 women engineers across the country, our study provides a relatively rare quantitative exploration of experiences of chilly climate and their potential consequences. Quantitative analyses revealed that such experiences were more common for non-binary respondents and those in the most male-dominated majors, speaking to the continued heteronormative masculine space of engineering. Further, encounters with chilly climate significantly predicted lower engineering identity and increased thoughts about leaving. The study provides evidence that despite larger national conversations about gender bias, and concerted efforts to promote more gender equitable college classrooms in STEM fields, faculty remain a critical source in contributing to the ongoing exclusion of women from engineering.

Authors

• Catherine C. Riegle-Crumb, University of Notre Dame

• Franchesca Maria Lyra, University of Texas at Austin

• Ursula Nguyen, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

• Rashi Agarwal, University of Texas at Austin