2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This work-in-progress paper (WIP) aims to understand how gender identity-based engineering student organizations support women’s engineering identity, sense of belonging, and persistence beliefs. Engineering holds a reputation for being a masculine profession that requires individuals to perform in ways that align with the expectations tied to masculine norms. However, when individuals do not perform according to those norms, they encounter an exclusionary environment that compounds feelings of belonging uncertainty. These feelings may be especially pronounced for women and other minoritized genders in engineering. Counterspaces, like gender identity-based engineering student organizations (GI ESOs), are examples of spaces aimed at supporting marginalized populations in engineering. Similar to other student organizations, GI ESOs often provide students with opportunities for professional development, leadership, and networking. However, GI ESOs function with a deeper purpose to help marginalized students feel seen, understood, and valued in engineering.

Students hold a social position that is molded by their own perceptions and their environment. As they progress through their degree, students are forced to negotiate their understanding of what it means to be an engineer based on the feedback they receive. While some students may choose to reconceptualize their understanding of an engineer, others choose to challenge perpetuated notions to author their own definition. Through engineering role identity theory, the author examined the ways supplementing an individual’s environmental feedback can influence their sense of self in engineering. As students engage in counter spaces that deviate from the prominent culture of engineering, it is important to note the ways students’ engineering identity development are being influenced.

The goal of this paper is to understand four undergraduate women’s motivations for joining a GI ESO and how their membership impacted their engineering identity development. Semi-structured interviews were used to ask four undergraduate engineering women about the motivations for joining a GI ESO and the outcomes from their membership. The four women were from one U.S. Southwestern institution. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis.

There were three findings highlighted in this paper: 1.) Women sought out ESOs that would support them at a personal and professional level, 2.) GI ESOs’ organizational opportunities supported women’s engineering identity development, 3.) Women’s identities were affirmed when they were automatically recognized as engineers in GI ESOs. Findings suggest that GI ESOs support women’s engineering identity development by providing gender-responsive resources, empowering women to challenge the status quo, and encouraging them to construct their own definition of what it means to be an engineer. Future work will include more participants and address any negotiations and barriers women face when determining their ESO memberships.