"I Have a Place Here in Engineering": The Role of Student Organizations in Affirming Women's Engineering Identity

• In Event: Women and Secondary School Girls Negotiating and Affirming Identity

Abstract

In many scientific fields, such as engineering, women face persistent barriers in representation and equitable opportunities. Taking a deeper look at undergraduate engineering education, student organizations may be one developmental space where women can cultivate identities as engineers—disciplinary identities that could have lasting implications for their persistence and satisfaction in engineering. Extending Carlone and Johnson’s (2007) model of science identity to the field-specific development of engineering identity, this phenomenological study uses interview and written data from 25 undergraduate women in engineering to understand how experiences in STEM-themed student organizations promote engineering identity. Findings demonstrate how STEM student organizations promote women’s recognition of themselves as engineers and offer opportunities for significant others in the field to recognize them as engineers.

Authors

• Katie N. Smith, Seton Hall University

• Annie M. Wofford, Northern Arizona University

• Breann Branch, Ph.D., Culture Journey - Critical Social Justice Project