2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This research explores the intersectionality of social class or the socioeconomic conditions under which an individual was raised with other marginalized identities in the journeys of women in STEM academia. The issue of social class in the experiences of STEM women faculty has not been robustly explored. Significant theoretical framings of the research include intersectionality, funds of knowledge, and hidden curriculum. Situated within a larger study, six among 13 women who participated in counterstories interviews revealed that they were first-generation students and/or were raised in low-income settings. Three of those women were more explicit in describing how socioeconomic issues impacted their experiences in STEM fields in higher education. Detailed narratives are included in the paper to provide a rich, first-person perspective on their experiences. Positives included their ability to understand and help marginalized students navigate academia. Their background was also an asset when conducting research in partnership with communities in truly collaborative ways that resulted in community benefits. The journeys of these women in academia also included poignant stories of their struggles with people and systems with little understanding of the challenges they were facing. Issues previously reported in the literature around the hazards of being over burdened with service and the importance of mentoring are reinforced. The importance of first-generation status or low-income upbringing for women in STEM fields deserves further attention in engineering education.