Gender and engineering identity development among undergraduate majors
Abstract
Engineering has long been a male-dominated profession. Despite concerted efforts by universities and the National Science Foundation to redress the problem, disproportionately more females than males exit undergraduate engineering programs before graduation. This dissertation explores the problem of gender-discrepant attrition by using a combination of focus groups, longitudinal survey data, and semi-structured interviews of undergraduate engineering students. Specifically, it investigates what conditions facilitate engineering identity development and whether the extent to which an individual develops an engineering identity—i.e., comes to think of oneself as an engineer and to attach personal meaning to one‘s performance of an engineering role—contributes to later attrition decisions. Further, this research examines the gendered nature of the process of becoming an engineer, in order to examine to what extent any gender differences in attrition can be explained by engineering identity development. Findings indicate that those who are socialized into the role of engineering student, and hence develop an engineering identity, are more likely to remain in their program.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Mustillo, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Engineering|Individual & family studies|Higher education
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