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1. Racism, sexism and disconnection: contrasting experiences of Black women in STEM before and after transfer from community college

   https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-022-00334-2  

   Allen, DeeDee ; Dancy, Melissa ; Stearns, Elizabeth ; Mickelson, Roslyn ; Bottia, Martha ( February 2022 , International Journal of STEM Education)

   Repeated calls to diversify the population of students earning undergraduate degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields have noted the greater diversity of community college students and their potential to thus have an impact on the racial/ethnic composition of 4-year degree earners. In this paper, we investigate barriers and supports to Black women’s success in STEM, using longitudinal interview data with seven Black women who were enrolled at community colleges and stated an interest in majoring in STEM at 4-year institutions.

   Our findings highlight a contrast between community colleges and universities. At community colleges, Black women were able to form supportive relationships with professors and peers, downplayed the potential of racism and sexism to derail their STEM ambitions, and saw little to no impact of bias on their educational experiences. Those students who transferred characterized university climates very differently, as they struggled to form supportive relationships and experienced racism and sexism from professors and peers.

   We conclude using Patricia Hill Collins’ Domains of Power framework to categorize students’ experiences, then end with recommendations for change that will result in less alienating experiences for Black women, among other minoritized students.

    

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2. Lessons from Diverse Women in STEM: Acknowledging Institutional Challenges and Empowering Agency Towards STEM persistence

   Schuyler, S. ; Briseño, J. ; Natarajan, M. ; Sista, A. ; Wilkins-Yel, K.G. ; Arnold, A. ; Bernstein, B. ; Randall, A.K ( January 2021 , Proceedings of the 2021 Collaborative Network for Engineering and Computing Diversity (CoNECD) Conference)

   null (Ed.)

   Women pursuing graduate studies in STEM fields often face challenges, such as implicit and explicit messages (e.g., microaggressions, stereotyping) that communicate their lack of belonging in STEM, the delegitimization of their skills and expertise, and instances where both their voice and physical presence are ignored. These gendered, and in the case of Women of Color (WoC), racialized experiences, result in additional stress that negatively influences women’s efforts to persist and succeed in STEM fields. This study, which is part of a larger NSF-funded project within the CareerWISE (CW) research program, highlighted the voices of white women and WoC in STEM doctoral programs with the goal of identifying factors that promote their STEM persistence. A total of 33 women in STEM doctoral programs across the United States were interviewed. Participants were asked to provide recommendations for fellow women in STEM who are considering leaving their programs to facilitate their persistence amidst challenges they might face. The findings were summarized into four broad themes: 1) seek interpersonal support, 2) prioritize mental health and wellbeing, 3) affirm and encourage one’s belongingness in STEM, and 4) explore different academic options if needed. Findings led to important implications for current and future graduate students, departments, and institutions (i.e., building community, fostering a welcoming environment, reducing barriers to persistence). 

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3. Who is a scientist? The relationship between counter-stereotypical beliefs about scientists and the STEM major intentions of Black and Latinx male and female students

   https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-021-00288-x  

   Nguyen, Ursula ; Riegle-Crumb, Catherine ( April 2021 , International Journal of STEM Education)

   Despite the diverse student population in the USA, the labor force in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) does not reflect this reality. While restrictive messages about who belongs in STEM likely discourage students, particularly female and minoritized students, from entering these fields, extant research on this topic is typically focused on the negative impact of stereotypes regarding math ability, or the existence of stereotypes about the physical appearance of scientists. Instead, this study builds on the limited body of research that captures a more comprehensive picture of students’ views of scientists, including not only the type of work that they do but also the things that interest them. Specifically, utilizing a sample of approximately 1000 Black and Latinx adolescents, the study employs an intersectional lens to examine whether the prevalence of counter-stereotypical views of scientists, and the association such views have on subsequent intentions to pursue STEM college majors, varies among students from different gender and racial/ethnic groups (e.g., Black female students, Latinx male students).

   While about half of Black and Latinx students reported holding counter-stereotypical beliefs about scientists, this is significantly more common among female students of color, and among Black female students in particular. Results from logistic regression models indicate that, net of control variables, holding counter-stereotypical beliefs about scientists predicts both young men’s and women’s intentions to major in computer science and engineering, but not intentions to major in either physical science or mathematics. Additionally, among Black and Latinx male students, counter-stereotypical perceptions of scientists are related to a higher likelihood of intending to major in biological sciences.

   The results support the use of an intersectional approach to consider how counter-stereotypical beliefs about scientists differ across gender and racial/ethnic groups. Importantly, the results also suggest that among Black and Latinx youth, for both female and male students, holding counter-stereotypical beliefs promotes intentions to enter particular STEM fields in which they are severely underrepresented. Implications of these findings and directions for future research, specifically focusing on minoritized students, which are often left out in this body of literature, are discussed.

    

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4. Transfer Student Receptivity in Patriarchal STEM Contexts: Evidence of Gendered Transfer Student Stigma in Computer Science From a Mixed Methods Study

   https://doi.org/10.1177/00915521231218233  

   Blaney, Jennifer M. ; Hernandez, Theresa E. ; Feldon, David F. ; Wofford, Annie M. ( January 2024 , Community College Review)

   Research Questions: While community college transfer (i.e., upward transfer) represents an important mechanism for advancing equity across STEM fields, existing studies of gender and women’s participation within computer science have largely excluded the perspectives of upward transfer students. We address this gap in the literature by exploring transfer receptivity and gender discrimination within computer science, guided by the following questions: (1) How do upward transfer computer science students report their receptivity experiences, and how might this differ by gender? (2) How do upward transfer computer science students make meaning of receptivity experiences, and how might that meaning making be shaped by gender? Methods: We use a sequential mixed methods design, relying on longitudinal survey and interview data from upward transfer computer science majors, collected throughout students’ first year at the receiving university. Results: Findings reveal that, relative to men, upward transfer women report greater experiences of transfer stigma and challenges accessing resources at the receiving university. Qualitative findings document additional nuances in how upward transfer students—especially women—describe resilience as they navigate the university campus, encounter navigation challenges at the university, and make meaning of various manifestations of transfer stigma on campus. Contributions: In addition to implications for research and theory, we discuss what universities can do to foster a more receptive environment for upward transfer women. Specific recommendations focus on ensuring that spaces for women in computing are inclusive of transfer students and, likewise, creating supportive transfer cohort communities that are inclusive of women.

    

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5. Exploring Gender Differences in Students’ Sustainability Beliefs in Upper-level Engineering Courses

   Swift, M. ; Godwin, A. ; Shealy, T. ( June 2018 , ASEE Annual Conference proceedings)

   Despite increased calls for the need for more diverse engineers and significant efforts to “move the needle,” the composition of students, especially women, earning bachelor’s degrees in engineering has not significantly changed over the past three decades. Prior research by Klotz and colleagues (2014) showed that sustainability as a topic in engineering education is a potentially positive way to increase women’s interest in STEM at the transition from high school to college. Additionally, sustainability has increasingly become a more prevalent topic in engineering as the need for global solutions that address the environmental, social, and economic aspects of sustainability have become more pressing. However, few studies have examined students’ sustainability related career for upper-level engineering students. This time point is a critical one as students are transitioning from college to industry or other careers where they may be positioned to solve some of these pressing problems. In this work, we answer the question, “What differences exist between men and women’s attitudes about sustainability in upper-level engineering courses?” in order to better understand how sustainability topics may promote women’s interest in and desire to address these needs in their future careers. We used pilot data from the CLIMATE survey given to 228 junior and senior civil, environmental, and mechanical engineering students at a large East Coast research institution. This survey included questions about students’ career goals, college experiences, beliefs about engineering, and demographic information. The students surveyed included 62 third-year students, 96 fourth-year students, 29 fifth-year students, and one sixth-year student. In order to compare our results of upper-level students’ attitudes about sustainability, we asked the same questions as the previous study focused on first-year engineering students, “Which of these topics, if any, do you hope to directly address in your career?” The list of topics included energy (supply or demand), climate change, environmental degradation, water supply, terrorism and war, opportunities for future generations, food availability, disease, poverty and distribution of resources, and opportunities for women and/or minorities. As the answer to this question was binary, either “Yes,” or “No,” Pearson’s Chi-squared test with Yates’ continuity correction was performed on each topic for this question, comparing men and women’s answers. We found that women are significantly more likely to want to address water supply, food availability, and opportunities for woman and/or minorities in their careers than their male peers. Conversely, men were significantly more likely to want to address energy and terrorism and war in their careers than their female peers. Our results begin to help us understand the particular differences that men and women, even far along in their undergraduate engineering careers, may have in their desire to address certain sustainability outcomes in their careers. This work begins to let us understand certain topics and pathways that may support women in engineering as well as provides comparisons to prior work on early career undergraduate students. Our future work will include looking at particular student experiences in and out of the classroom to understand how these sustainability outcome expectations develop. 

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