Empowering Male Students as Allies for Gender Equity Within an Engineering College

Women comprise more than 50% of those who attend college. In spite of this, much has been made of the chilly climate or unwelcoming environment for women in higher education. Elements of this chilly climate include both overt and covert behaviors by faculty, administrators, and students (e.g., sexist humor, stereotypical comments of women's abilities) as well as institutional policies and practices. Studies have shown that a chilly climate can have a negative impact on cognitive development and can also influence women’s desire to stay and persist within a science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) field. At The Ohio State University College of Engineering (COE), women are currently 20% of the overall undergraduate student population within the College. Improving women’s retention in engineering fields requires a multifaceted approach. Both direct support for women, along with the development of allies, are crucial to promoting a long-lasting, positive climate for women studying in this field. Allies for Women Engineers (AWE) at The Ohio State University is a pilot cohort of 11 male undergraduate and graduate engineering students who have been trained as allies for women in the COE. Through participation in a oneyear program focused on gender equity, implicit bias, microaggressions, and sociocultural conversations, these individuals are equipped to act as allies specifically for women in the COE, but also for other underrepresented groups, as they move from academe into the professional arena. This paper will highlight details and logistics of the ally program as well as the first phase of assessment. Introduction and Background Fifty percent of students pursuing undergraduate degrees in the United States are women.1,2 In spite of this, much has been made of the chilly climate, or unwelcoming environment for women in higher education, particularly those in science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) fields.2-7 Elements of this chilly climate include both overt and covert behaviors by faculty, administrators, and students (e.g., sexist humor, stereotypical comments about women's abilities), and institutional policies and practices. Direct discrimination can add to this unwelcoming, even hostile, environment.7 A study by Haines found that 16% of women reported experiencing sexual discrimination from faculty versus only 4% of men reporting the same. Subtle forms of discrimination can also have a detrimental effect on climate.7,8 Research regarding group dynamics has shown that men interrupt women more frequently than women interrupt men, and that work contributed by a woman is often undervalued, and even exploited by men.9 Many times these subtle occurrences of discrimination go unnoticed by women.10 However, they can have a lasting impact on an individual’s desire to persist in an inhospitable environment.7 The potential for negative cognitive effects along with the perceived hostility within maledominated majors such as engineering often places women at a greater risk of leaving the college or university prior to degree completion.11,12 For example, in engineering the national retention rate from entry into the major to graduation is just under 60% for women and men.13 Although the overall retention of female undergraduates in STEM disciplines is similar to the retention rate for men and has improved over time, understanding why women leave STEM majors is still an important area of research.14 Women make up a smaller number of STEM students from the start, so the loss of women from these majors is of special concern. Studies have also found that the inhospitable environment in these disciplines can have a negative impact on women’s selfconfidence, thus acting as a major barrier to success.1,2 Additionally, this climate is a small reflection of general gender inequity within higher education and society as a whole as it is often documented that women lag substantially behind men when it comes to their representation in leadership positions.15 The proportion of women engineers has only marginally increased in the last decade in spite of the implementation of support programs, such as mentoring.7 Mentoring alone is not enough to increase the retention of women in STEM fields as it does not eliminate the career barriers women face or alter the campus climate.16 Improving women’s retention in STEM fields requires a multifaceted approach. Direct support for women, along with efforts involving allies, are crucial to promoting a long-lasting, positive climate for women studying in these fields. If women perceive a positive and welcoming environment, they are more likely to be retained and matriculate to graduation.6 While awareness of gender barriers for women in engineering programs is increasing, related work in the field designed to remove such obstacles is still evolving. Preliminary studies suggest that men are more likely to reject results that indicate sexism in STEM fields, in spite of the abundance of evidence that suggests otherwise.17 In STEM departments, men constitute the dominant group and as such, they play a vital role in working toward gender equity.18 From a social justice perspective, having allies, i.e., those from the dominant social group who understand the inequity placed on those in the minority, is critical in addressing issues with climate and improving the experience for all.19,20 Since men in STEM fields have social power, they have the ability to be important agents of change.18 As Munin and Speight state, "Allies are a positive, disruptive force in an overarching system of oppression that melds institutional discrimination and personal prejudice into a pervasive web of domination."20 The concept of male allies has been applied to academia at a number of institutions. North Dakota State University developed an Advocates and Allies program to lead change in addressing the chilly climate for women in technology workplaces.18 Participants in this program are male faculty members whose goal is to educate other male faculty about gender inequities in academia and strive to bring about positive change in their departments. Other institutions, including Louisiana Tech University, West Virginia University, Lehigh University, and the University of Maine have adopted similar models and programs.18 Evidence suggests that Advocates and Allies faculty programs have a positive impact on the men who attend the trainings; one study found that 92.7% of the male faculty who attended ally training agreed to promote a more welcoming and inclusive environment for women faculty.18 The development of male allies as an equity strategy can also be applied at the student level. Undergraduate and graduate men who are committed to promoting gender equity in STEM fields can serve as peer mentors for other male students. Gender in mentoring relationships is an important factor. Same-sex mentoring promotes more psychosocial functions and an increased comfort level within the mentoring relationship.21-23 One barrier to men supporting gender initiatives is fear of lowered social status among other men.24 The nonprofit organization, Catalyst, suggests that one way to remove this barrier is to expose men to male role models who are advocates for gender inclusion.24 A male allies program for students can help create role models and mentors, thus countering the fear of compromised social status. Male allies within collegiate STEM environments can help change the unwelcoming culture that women face, reinforcing a positive climate for everyone. Developing allies to support gender equity promotes all students’ sense of belonging. Sense of belonging is defined as “students’ perceived social support on campus, a feeling of connectedness, or that one is important to others.”25 Numerous studies have shown that students’ sense of belonging is directly tied to retention and persistence to graduation.26-28 Allies who promote a positive climate can help to create the community and connectedness that women in engineering need to succeed at higher rates than has historically been the case. Allies for Women Engineers (AWE) at The Ohio State University is a pilot cohort of 11 male undergraduate and graduate engineering students who have been trained as allies for women in the COE. Through participation in a one-year program focused on gender equity, implicit bias, microaggressions, and sociocultural conversations, these individuals are equipped to act as allies specifically for women in the COE, but also for other underrepresented groups, as they move from academe into the professional arena. Improved retention of students, especially women, in the The Ohio State University COE will inevitably indicate immediate success of this initiative; however, the overall significance goes beyond retention numbers. AWE promotes equity for all students in the COE while also providing personal and professional growth opportunities for cohort members as well as classmates and colleagues who participate in outreach activities led by members of the cohort. The assessment and evaluation of this program is multidimensional and includes the impact of the program on men within the cohort, as well as both men and women who attend the outreach programming throughout the year. To understand and assess the current climate in undergraduate engineering in universities across the United States, a comprehensive survey called the Project to Assess Climate in Engineering (PACE) was conducted in 2008 and 2012 by the Center for Workforce Development at the University of Washington.29 To ensure that women and underrepresented minorities were adequately represented, oversampling was done for these entries. The stated purpose of PACE is to “identify issues that affect persistence among engineering undergraduates while paying specific attention to the intersection of race, gender and academic experience.”29 The PACE surveys conducted for the College of Engineering a