2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Women, and particularly women of Color, often cite experiences within engineering that are characterized by hostility, isolation, and low sense of belonging; however, there is limited, extant research examining how the experiences of white women and women of Color compare. The purpose of this study is to explore how undergraduate women experience and understand their gender and race and ethnicity as they progress through their first year in engineering. Using longitudinal, qualitative data, we employ critical race feminism to explore the differences in the first-year experiences of 33 women in engineering by race, with a focus on understanding how racial and ethnic identity either mitigates or exacerbates gender-related issues within engineering.

Critical race feminism (CRF) focuses on the experiences of women of Color and is employed to examine the intersection of race, class, and gender and the manner in which these interlocking systems of oppression create unique experiences for women of Color. Through the use of CRF, which centers, race, class, and gender inequity, we critically examine the experiences of undergraduate women in engineering through a structural and systemic lens, allowing us to infer if and how experiences differ between white women and women of Color in the undergraduate engineering context.

This WIP uses data from a larger study examining the experiences of undergraduate women engineering students at a selective research institution in the mid-Atlantic region. Thirty-three first-year women engineering students are included in the sample, with 16 women of Color and 17 white students. Data collection occurred over three semi-structured interviews during the participants’ first college year. We utilize narrative analysis to illuminate the voices and perspectives of those marginalized in education. Interview transcripts were coded deductively, focusing on how these women experience and understand their gender, race, and ethnic identities in the engineering context.

Preliminary findings demonstrate a disparity between the perceptions of white women and women of Color in how social identities are a benefit or disadvantage in their engineering experiences. While white women largely perceive their gender as neutral or a disadvantage, women of Color noted that the intersection of their race or ethnicity and gender serves as an advantage in facilitating opportunities. Additionally, women of Color highlight the importance of communities of peers with shared identities while white women downplayed their gender minority status in engineering, articulating an ethos of meritocracy and egalitarianism with men peers. Of particular importance in this novel comparative study, women of Color highlighted the ways that white women exacerbated racial or ethnic-related challenges that they experienced within the discipline, suggesting that white women are in need of education.

As these findings indicate that women of Color and white women can and do experience the engineering context differently, the need for identity-related spaces and asset-based approaches to providing support for women of Color is critical. Additionally, white women’s exacerbation of the challenges that women of Color experience demonstrates a need for white students to understand how structures like race, gender, and class uniquely oppress women of Color.