Gender And Race/Ethnicity In Engineering: Preliminary Findings From The Project To Assess Climate In Engineering

How do gender and race/ethnicity jointly impact students’ perceptions of their experiences, abilities and their risk of attrition? This paper discusses the generalizability of the Project to Assess Climate in Engineering (PACE) findings, respondent demographics and describes some of the preliminary analysis regarding climate, confidence and risk of attrition issues for African Americans, Hispanics, Whites and men and women. Analyses confirm that students across these demographic groups have very different experiences. The findings provide additional evidence for the importance of looking at the intersection of gender and race and for separating racial and ethnic groups in analyses instead of grouping them into one under-represented minority category. The intersection of gender and race showcases the diversity of engineering student experiences and point to ways educators could re-think their programs and practices to improve the student learning environment and retention rates.