2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Drawing on feminist theoretical frameworks that challenge traditional approaches to engineering education, this study examines how systemic barriers and power dynamics shape women's experiences in engineering spaces. Despite decades of initiatives aimed at increasing diversity, significant disparities persist in both enrollment and professional retention. While women comprise 29.47% of undergraduate engineering students, they represent only 17.2% of the professional engineering workforce, indicating that recruitment alone is insufficient for creating lasting change. This work-in-progress study examines how successful support programs foster inclusion and belonging in engineering education spaces, moving beyond numerical representation. Through focus groups and interviews with participants in a technology program serving over 400 women, we investigate the specific components that characterize inclusive environments and how these elements work together to challenge traditional power structures while creating spaces where diverse approaches to engineering knowledge and practice can flourish.

Our findings reveal four essential, interrelated components that characterize inclusive environments: being actively invited in, being genuinely welcomed, having people to relate to, and being able to share one's whole self. Participants distinguished between passive acceptance and active inclusion, emphasizing how power dynamics in engineering spaces require deliberate intervention to overcome. The research highlights that while demographic representation matters, shared values and experiences are equally crucial for creating genuine inclusion. Importantly, students identified the ability to share their "whole selves" - including showing vulnerability and making mistakes without judgment - as critical to their success and retention in engineering programs.

The study employed qualitative methods, including focus groups and interviews with nine students representing diverse academic years and racial/ethnic backgrounds. Participants were recruited from a program designed to support undergraduate women majoring in computer science and electrical/computer engineering through integrated summer internships, peer living-learning communities, and year-round professional development. Guided by feminist scholarship that emphasizes the importance of relationship, responsibility, and attention to power dynamics, our analysis revealed that inclusive environments directly enhanced both student confidence and productivity. The study also highlighted a crucial gap: while students valued inclusive environments, many expressed uncertainty about their ability to create such spaces themselves, particularly in formal work settings.

The research contributes to engineering education literature by providing an empirically grounded framework for understanding inclusion, demonstrating the importance of systematic institutional commitment over individual initiative, and identifying specific skill gaps in preparing students to create and maintain inclusive environments. This work has implications for how engineering programs approach diversity initiatives, suggesting the need for comprehensive transformation that addresses both interpersonal dynamics and institutional structures while maintaining technical excellence.