“Is engineering for me?”: Examining Latinas’ narratives of resilience and agency to confront enduring struggles and challenges in undergraduate engineering studies.

Abstract

In 2016, Latinas earned 13% of the college degrees earned by women; yet, a mere 3% were in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Persistence in engineering education has largely been the burden of women rather than the institution itself, and it can be said that the field of engineering is powerful in mediating identity-making via layers of historically rooted privilege, leading to discomfort and disillusionment. This qualitative investigation of Latinas at an institution on the U.S.-Mexico border draws from a larger nationally funded study examining persistence and resilience in engineering education. This article focuses on one of the major themes emerging from the larger study: Latinas in engineering and computer science undergraduate studies have been challenged by the endemic barriers rooted in systemic violence of the male-dominated field of engineering and its historical marginalization of women, especially women of color. Twenty-six undergraduate Latinas were recruited using purposeful sampling, and data relevant to the theme of this investigation were drawn from all of the interviews and collected using in-depth interviews. This study, however, focuses largely on the narratives of 3 participants who provided thick descriptions of their experiences, and the strongest emergent theme was the adversity faced by Latinas, which was manifested in a variety of ways largely due to the historical structure of engineering as rigid and masculine. This posed a contentious climate for many of these Latinas, which this article illuminates to demonstrate the enduring and invisible symbolic violence of Latinas in engineering undergraduate studies.

Voces de mujeres en ingeniería: experiencias académicas, obstáculos y facilitadores para permanecer en las carreras

“…Tal situación, se explica en función de que si bien, para la comunidad académica este es un problema que se debe atender, aún existe invisibilización, lo que limitaría su posible solución. Esto da cuenta de cómo a lo largo de la formación en ingeniería, las estudiantes aprenden a convivir en espacios donde las experiencias académicas se contraponen, en función de las creencias y estereotipos que tiene la propia comunidad que les forma (Villa et al, 2020): "muchas veces, te sentías mal e ibas al psicólogo y lo primero que te decía ¿estás segura que te gusta la universidad? Quizás no te da para esto, ¿no has pensado en cambiarte?…”

“…También se reporta que la elección de carreras de ingeniería por parte de las estudiantes mujeres se ve limitada por los estereotipos y prejuicios sociales, y tal como lo reporta el estudio de Álvarez-Aguilar et al (2019) en México, donde las estudiantes explican que el machismo, la discriminación y el acoso; son causas por las que las mujeres no eligen carreras de ingeniería. Esto se puede relacionar, además, con diferencias en el autoconcepto de las estudiantes, particularmente en la confianza en las propias habilidades, el interés y motivación por el área, sus experiencias en educación secundaria o el nivel de exposición a la ingeniería antes de la universidad (Ro y Knight, 2016;Salinas y Romaní, 2017;Villa, et al, 2020).Dichos factores también se consideran importantes para que las mujeres puedan persistir al interior de las carreras de ingeniería, ya que el autoconcepto se relaciona estrechamente con su motivación y logros académicos (Cadaret, et al, 2017;White y Massiha, 2016). En efecto, aunque muchos programas hacen esfuerzos para sensibilizar al cuerpo académico y apoyar a las alumnas, no se han observado cambios en las tasas de matrícula y graduación, es más, en algunos países han bajado en los últimos 20 años (White y Massiha, 2016).…”

Understanding Students’ Positive Emotions Through Photovoice Study

“…Various studies on undergraduate students and their learning activities have been carried out. The methods that researchers have recently used to study undergraduate students were qualitative (Hill, et al, 2020;Villa, et al, 2020) and quantitative methods (Pham & Lui, 2020), for example regulatory emotions (Hannan & Orcutt., 2020). These variables include, the use of coping strategies, emotions, support, locus of control, mindfulness, and empathy (Killian, 2008;Thomas & Otis., 2010).…”

Toward an Understanding of the Relationship Between Race/Ethnicity, Gender, First-generation Student Status, and Engineering Identity at Hispanic-serving Institutions

“…Other important factors that have been explored in the literature of student's persistence in engineering include race/ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, and first-generation status. More specifically, studies show that being non-white [10], [17] - [20], identifying with a gender other than male [7], [9], [23], [25] - [27], as well as being the first in your family to attend college [30], [31], are all linked to lower levels of persistence and success in engineering. Many of these studies have also examined various combinations of demographic factors and their interactions with engineering identity and their influence on persistence and success [32] - [36].…”

“…By far the most commonly researched intersecting factors influencing engineering identity are race/ethnicity and gender-specifically, women of color in engineering [7] - [11], [17] - [29], [43], and most of these studies are qualitative in nature. The research examining the experiences of women of color in engineering explores the double bind of being both a woman and a person of color in a white-and male-dominated field such as engineering, and describe the experiences of these women as they navigate their programs and develop an engineering identity [7], [10], [17] - [23], [25] - [27]. In quantitative studies, engineering identity is often used as a mediating variable between race/ethnicity and gender, and persistence in the program, offering an explanation as to why women of color students continue in the field despite the barriers they face; however, engineering identity is not typically used as the dependent variable [8] - [10], [17] - [21], [23], [25] - [27].…”