Evolving Identities: Undergraduate Women Pursuing the Engineering Professoriate

Engineering in United States contexts has historically been the domain of Caucasian/white males. Programmatic efforts address the disparity in engineering by forming inclusive learning communities that support gender and racial diversity. FemProf is a comprehensive engineering education program that engages female undergraduates at two Hispanic-serving institutions in the United States. Program activities include multisite research experiences, professional development and community building. Workshops address cultural, gender and workplace biases the women may find in the engineering professions, as well as training regarding graduate school application, research presentation and publication. FemProf‘s explicit focus is preparing undergraduate women for success in graduate school and for future participation in the professoriate. For this research project, we studied FemProf with an eye toward identity development. A grounded, thematic approach to qualitative data analysis uncovered three themes evident in the process of Fem Prof undergraduate participant learning: ―program support for professoriate trajectories;‖ ―participant identification with engineering pathways;‖ and a third theme not anticipated: ―participants advocate for gender equity in engineering.‖ Based on our qualitative analysis, we argue FemProf supports inclusion of women into the engineering community, and makes explicit the pathway to the professoriate.