2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Are Hardhats Required for Engineering Identity Construction? Gendered and Racialized Patterns in Canadian Engineering Graduates’ Professional Identities

Presented at Women in Engineering Division (WIED) Technical Session 5 - Careers and Professional Identity

Despite ongoing efforts to increase diversity in engineering, women continue to be underrepresented in the field, making up only 15% of licensed professional engineers in Canada [1]. This persistent underrepresentation has been explained in part by the challenges women and other underrepresented groups face in identifying with engineering, including feeling inauthentic in traditional engineering roles, and doing additional work to manage impressions and demonstrate professional fit [2-4]. Studies on engineers’ career paths have also shown that underrepresented groups in engineering are more likely to be streamed into non-traditional career pathways with less social capital, negatively impacting their identification with the field [5-8]. As identification with the profession can predict the persistence of both engineering students and professionals [9], there is a need to understand factors that influence engineering identity, and how these factors may vary by demographics. Using data from a 2022 national survey of engineering graduates (n=982), we examine the engineering intensity of participants’ professional identities disaggregated by gender and race. Our findings reveal that role type, technical focus, and application of background education were salient themes across the entire sample, reflecting the prioritization of traditional and technically oriented work in engineering culture [10]. For engineering educators, understanding the factors that influence engineering identity has implications for their ability to foster their students’ sense of belonging, encourage their retention in the field, and improve their access to a range of meaningful engineering career paths.

Authors

Ms. Emily Macdonald-Roach University of Toronto [biography]

Emily Macdonald-Roach is an MASc student in Engineering Education at the University of Toronto. Her research interests include engineering identity formation, engineering culture, and equity, diversity, and inclusion in engineering career paths.
Dr. Cindy Rottmann http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3291-095X University of Toronto [biography]

Cindy Rottmann is an Assistant Professor of Engineering Leadership Education at the University of Toronto. Her research interests include engineering ethics, equity, and leadership in university and workplace settings.
Dr. Emily Moore P.Eng. University of Toronto [biography]

Emily Moore is the Director of the Troost Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering (Troost ILead) at the University of Toronto. Emily spent 20 years as a professional engineer, first as an R&D engineer in a Fortune 500 company, and then leading
Dr. Andrea Chan University of Toronto [biography]

Andrea Chan is a Senior Research Associate at the Troost Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering | University of Toronto
Ms. Dimpho Radebe University of Toronto [biography]

Dimpho Radebe is a PhD student in Engineering Education at the University of Toronto. Her research interests include engineering culture, engineering careers in the public sector, and ethics and equity in STEM. Dimpho has several years of experience in th
Ms. Saskia van Beers University of Toronto [biography]

Saskia van Beers (she/her) is a current MASc. student studying engineering education under the supervision of Dr. Cindy Rottmann. She holds a BASc in Engineering Science from the University of Toronto. While her undergraduate academic focus was on biomedical engineering and public health, it was her extracurricular journey working in equity and accessibility promoting spaces and teams that motivated her graduate studies work. Previously, her undergraduate thesis examined systemic obstacles Canadian engineers face when trying to earn their professional engineering license. Her MASc research focuses on understanding how Canadian engineers reflect on the impact that their social location has had on their career.
Sasha-Ann Eleanor Nixon University of Toronto

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