2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This work examines relations among belonging, peer inclusion, and endorsement of hegemonic masculinity with engineering identity for students of various gender identities and sexual orientations in an undergraduate engineering program. We have a particular interest in the compounding disparities faced by queer women in engineering. To examine these relations, we surveyed (using Qualtrics) students in chemical engineering classes at a large R1 university. Each variable (engineering identity, collective self-esteem, belonging, peer inclusion, and hegemonic masculinity) was submitted to a gender (man, woman) X sexual orientation (straight, queer) between-participant analysis of variance (ANOVA). Aligned with previously documented gender disparities in STEM, we predicted and found that women (vs. men) students had a decreased sense of belonging and identity, lower feelings of inclusion from peer interactions, and a lower endorsement of hegemonic masculinity. We predicted that sexual orientation would follow the same pattern as gender, but we found that queer (vs. straight) students have only decreased feelings of identity. Consistent with intersectionality predictions, analyses revealed significant interactions for gender identity X sexual orientations such that queer women had decreased feelings of engineering identity and belonging compared to all groups of their peers. These results will inform future work regarding the factors that contribute to this adverse reality for queer women and students of other intersectional identities.