Women as the Miner's Canary in Undergraduate Engineering Education

In this paper, we will examine the metaphor of the Miner’s Canary as it relates to undergraduate women majoring in engineering at a large, Midwestern university. Prior to the existence of sensors that can detect dangerous levels of various gases in mines, miners would carry canaries into the mines with them as a warning system for high levels of carbon monoxide 1 . The canary has a more fragile respiratory system than humans; it is more sensitive to change in the quality of air in an environment. When the canary would begin to struggle for breath, the miners took this as a signal that there was a problem with the atmosphere in the mine. Lani Guinier, Gerald Torres and Susan Sturm have posited the idea that the metaphor of the Miner’s Canary is an important metaphor for viewing the behavior of those in underrepresented minority groups in institutions or career fields and encourage faculty and administrators to look at the behavior of underrepresented minority groups within an institution as sensitive indicators to potentially toxic problems 2 . By using minority group behavior as a diagnostic tool for analyzing the reactions of minority groups, faculty and administration can begin to understand the ways in which admissions criteria, pedagogy, curriculum, and institutional environments need to be changed to not only support the needs of the minority groups but make the environment healthier for all 2 . Women are approximately 18% of all undergraduate students in engineering nationally, and 20% of the engineering student body at this large Midwestern university. These percentages have remained relatively flat for the last 10 – 15 years, despite years of national and international research as to the cause of women’s underrepresentation in engineering, and increasing numbers of programs and activities intended to improve women’s representation in engineering fields. This paper will explore evidence that indicates the collective behavior of women majoring in engineering at this institution could be more sensitive earlier to subsequent correlated institutional change. It appears that women’s responses are stronger to both positive and negative events at an institution. By using the metaphor of the Miner’s Canary in looking at women’s behavior at this institution, this paper seeks to establish that women engineering students’ collective behavior is a leading indicator of important issues that impact all students in engineering education. Introduction and Literature Review “The canary is a source of information for all who care about the atmosphere in the mines – and a source of motivation for changing the mines to make them safer. The canary serves both a diagnostic and innovative function.” 3 Women are approximately 18% of all undergraduate students in engineering nationally 4 , and 20% of the engineering student body at this large Midwestern university. These percentages have remained relatively flat for the last 10 – 15 years, despite years of national and international research as to the cause of women’s underrepresentation in engineering, and increasing numbers of programs and activities intended to improve women’s representation in engineering fields. As Dr. Anny Morrobel-Sosa implied in her 2005 Campus Women Lead column for the Association P ge 22696.2 of American Colleges and Universities, it is likely that women are miner’s canaries in the world of engineering 5 . Lani Guinier, Gerald Torres and Susan Sturm have posited the idea that the metaphor of the Miner’s Canary is an important metaphor for viewing the behavior of those in minority groups in institutions or career fields 2 . These scholars compare the behavior of minority groups in certain environments to the behavior of the canary miner’s used to carry with them as an early warning signal 2 . Since the canary has a more fragile respiratory system than humans, it is more sensitive to change in the quality of air in an environment. When the canary would begin to struggle for breath, the miners took this as a signal that there was a problem with the atmosphere in the mine 2 . Guinier and colleagues encouraged faculty and administrators to look at the behavior of minority groups within an institution as sensitive indicators to potentially toxic problems for the entire student body 2 . By providing programs that provide assistance to the “canaries”, the remainder of the student body benefits in tandem 2 . In this paper we expand the notion of the Miner’s Canary, we believe that the canary not only is harmed when in toxic situations but also sings more loudly than the majority in response to positive events. We believe that undergraduate women engineering students serve as a Miner’s Canary for retention issues in the undergraduate engineering environment. We use Guinier, Torres and Strum’s “Miner’s Canary” theory that minority group behavior is an important tool as a leading indicator of change to help provide insight for faculty and administrators interested in understanding the ways in which admissions criteria, pedagogy, curriculum, and institutional environments need to be changed to not only support the needs of the minority groups but make the environment healthier for all 2 . Moore, Brown & Scarupa 6 reported that indicators are often underutilized in “the broader social policy arena” (p.1) despite their widespread acceptance in so many other fields. Yet these indicators can provide valuable information to policy makers on the macro, meso, and micro levels 6 . Moore, Brown, and Scarupa 6 asserted that indicators can provide valuable information in the form of: “description, monitoring, goal setting, increasing accountability, and reflective practice” (p.1) when they are used appropriately. As Moore, Brown, and Scarupa indicated in their report, while correlations may be established, indicators do not provide evidence for cause and effect 6 . Understanding which factors are leading indicators of change helps inform those in program and policy making positions. We use retention data from the last 9 years to chronicle the trends in undergraduate engineering retention at this large Midwestern university. We wish to understand if the retention behavior of undergraduate women engineering students could potentially provide insight into the health of the undergraduate engineering environment. By exploring these trends and the difference between the group retention rates of men and women we seek to establish that women engineering students’ collective behavior is a leading indicator of the undergraduate engineering programs “health” and a diagnostic tool for understanding the success of the undergraduate engineering program, where success is defined as undergraduate student retention. The data we supply indicates that first-year women engineering students appear to be leading indicators of change within the undergraduate engineering environment. P ge 22696.3