Women of Color Engineering Faculty: An Examination of the Experiences and the Numbers

In December 1975, a group of underrepresented minority women pursuing careers in science, engineering, medicine, and dentistry convened under the auspices of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The women shared common experiences related to the “double oppression of sex and race or ethnicity plus the third oppression in the chosen career, science”. They discussed their unique positions, identified common barriers and challenges to their success, and formulated plans for change at departmental and institutional levels. The ensuing publication, The Double Bind: The Price of Being a Minority Woman in Science, marks the first collective report on the unique challenges faced by underrepresented minority women in the sciences. 7 According to Malcolm et al., much has changed regarding women of color (WOC) since 1975. The conversation has moved from “rights versus wrongs” and more about support versus neglect; less about the behavior of individuals and a culture that was accepting of bias as the ‘natural order of things’ and more about the responsibilities and action (or inaction) of institutions”. Yet, much has also stayed the same. Over thirty years since this seminal publication, relatively little is known or published about the quality of the collective experiences of WOC faculty in engineering and the distinct issues that WOC encounter. We aim to fill this gap by presenting emergent themes arising from panel discussions held at the 2006 American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Conference, Frontiers in Education (FIE) Conference and the 2007 “Keeping our Faculties of Color Symposium,” a synthesis of relevant WOC literature, and the current status of WOC faculty in engineering using numerical indicators from the American Society for Engineering Education. Our goal is to motivate further studies and empirical analyses that explore the experiences of WOC in engineering. Thus, key stakeholders (e.g., higher education institutions and policy makers) will have pertinent information and evidence to design initiatives and policies to effectively recruit and retain diverse science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) populations.