Broadening Participation in STEM: Intersectional and Institutional Influences on Underrepresented Minorities' College Pathways

• In Event: 66.079 - Roundtable Session 25
  In Roundtable Session: 66.079-8 - Inequality: Race/Ethnicity and Gender

Abstract

In a post-recession context of rising income inequality, the importance of a college degree to the attainment of financial stability has never appeared more urgent. However, students’ college achievement, persistence and attainment and career attainment remain unequal by gender, race/ethnicity, and family income, both within and across group categories. Continuing inequality in STEM is a stubborn problem, and continuing intersectional inequalities often go unaddressed. Current research often does not take into account that, for example, the challenges of women in STEM vary by racial/ethnic group and family income. Utilizing qualitative interviews with 200 undergraduates at a large, “Research I” university, I examine how individual orientations and institutional practices concurrently influence women and URM college students’ achievement, persistence, and attainment.

Authors

• Sarah M. Ovink, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

• Megan Nanney, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

• Lindsay Kahle, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

• Kimberly Johnson, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

• Jennifer Dick-Mosher, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University