Navigating the heteronormativity of engineering: the experiences of lesbian, gay, and bisexual students
TL;DR: This paper conducted an exploratory study of the ways LGB students at a major research university in the western United States both experience and navigate the climate of their engineering college and found that pervasive prejudicial cultural norms and perceptions of competence particular to the engineering profession can limit these students' opportunities to succeed, relative to their heterosexual peers.
Abstract: While much is known about the experiences of women and racial/ethnic minorities in male-dominated fields such as engineering, the experiences of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) identifying individuals remain unstudied. Our article breaks this silence with an exploratory study of the ways LGB students at a major research university in the western United States both experience and navigate the climate of their engineering college. Based on interviews and focus groups, we find that both pervasive prejudicial cultural norms and perceptions of competence particular to the engineering profession can limit these students' opportunities to succeed, relative to their heterosexual peers. Nevertheless, through coping strategies which can require immense amounts of additional emotional and academic effort, LGB students navigate a chilly and heteronormative engineering climate by ‘passing’ as heterosexual, ‘covering’ or downplaying cultural characteristics associated with LGB identities, and garnering expertise to ma...
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01 Jan 1992
TL;DR: The body politics of Julia Kristeva and the Body Politics of JuliaKristeva as discussed by the authors are discussed in detail in Section 5.1.1 and Section 6.2.1.
Abstract: Preface (1999) Preface (1990) 1. Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire I. 'Women' as the Subject of Feminism II. The Compulsory Order of Sex/Gender/Desire III. Gender: The Circular Ruins of Contemporary Debate IV. Theorizing the Binary, the Unitary and Beyond V. Identity, Sex and the Metaphysics of Substance VI. Language, Power and the Strategies of Displacement 2. Prohibition, Psychoanalysis, and the Production of the Heterosexual Matrix I. Structuralism's Critical Exchange II. Lacan, Riviere, and the Strategies of Masquerade III. Freud and the Melancholia of Gender IV. Gender Complexity and the Limits of Identification V. Reformulating Prohibition as Power 3. Subversive Bodily Acts I. The Body Politics of Julia Kristeva II. Foucault, Herculine, and the Politics of Sexual Discontinuity III. Monique Wittig - Bodily Disintegration and Fictive Sex IV. Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions Conclusion - From Parody to Politics
1,125 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the importance of training ethical, socially conscious engineers has been discussed, but does US engineering education actually encourage neophytes to take seriously their professional responsibili...
Abstract: Much has been made of the importance of training ethical, socially conscious engineers, but does US engineering education actually encourage neophytes to take seriously their professional responsib...
342 citations
Cites background from "Navigating the heteronormativity of..."
...In all four schools, engineering and preengineering students take at least one introductory engineering course meant to familiarize them with the profession (Cech et al. 2011)....
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TL;DR: This article used critical engineering agency to understand first-year students' attitudes and self-beliefs to predict the choice of an engineering career and found gender differences in students' math and physics identities and agency beliefs.
Abstract: Background
Prior to college, many students have no experience with engineering, but some ultimately choose an engineering career. Women choose engineering at lower rates than men. This article uses critical engineering agency (CEA) to understand first-year students' attitudes and self-beliefs to predict the choice of an engineering career.
Purpose/Hypothesis
We investigated how first-year students' math and physics identities and students' beliefs about the ability of science to improve the world predict choice of engineering as a career and whether these beliefs differ by gender.
Design/Method
The data were from the Sustainability and Gender in Engineering survey distributed during fall 2011 (N = 6,772). Structural equation modeling was used to understand first-year students' affective beliefs for predicting engineering career choice.
Results
Math and physics identities are important for predicting engineering choice at the beginning of college. Recognition from others and interest in a subject are positive predictors of physics and math identities. Students' performance/competence beliefs alone are negative predictors of engineering career choice but are mediated by interest and recognition from others. Student identities and agency beliefs are significant predictors of engineering career choice, explaining 20% of the variance. We also found gender differences in students' math and physics identities and agency beliefs.
Conclusions
This article emphasizes the importance of students' recognition beliefs and the importance of agency beliefs for women in predicting engineering career choice.
254 citations
Additional excerpts
...Although prior research has documented student persistence and attrition in engineering majors across the college years (Cech & Waidzunas, 2011; Marra, Rodgers, Shen, & Bogue, 2012; Min et al., 2011), students’ choice of engineering as a career while in high school is not well understood....
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TL;DR: A multilevel regression model controlling for various experiences and characteristics previously determined to predict retention in STEM demonstrated that, net of these variables, sexual minority students were 7% less likely to be retained in STEM compared to switching into a non-STEM program.
Abstract: Using a national longitudinal survey data set from the Higher Education Research Institute, this study tested whether students who identified as a sexual minority (for example, lesbian, gay, bisexual, or queer) were more or less likely to persist after 4 years in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, as opposed to switching to a non-STEM program, compared to their heterosexual peers. A multilevel regression model controlling for various experiences and characteristics previously determined to predict retention in STEM demonstrated that, net of these variables, sexual minority students were 8% less likely to be retained in STEM compared to switching into a non-STEM program. Despite this finding, sexual minority STEM students were more likely to report participating in undergraduate research programs, and the gender disparity in STEM retention appears to be reversed for sexual minority STEM students.
156 citations
Cites background from "Navigating the heteronormativity of..."
...Previous studies have also posited that factors that create a “chilly” climate forwomen in STEMalso affect sexualminority students because of the relationship between gender stereotypes and sexual orientation (21, 22)....
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...However, these settings may also be locations where the gendered nature of STEM culture is experienced, which has been shown to contribute to a chilly or hostile climate for LGBT students (21)....
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...As it has been previously postulated that heterosexist stereotypes in STEMdisadvantage sexual minority menmore than sexual minority women (21), an interaction term between sex and sexual minority status was tested....
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...In one study, LGB engineering students reported feeling alienated within their degree programs as a result of compartmentalizing their personal and academic experiences in response to hostility from their classmates (21)....
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30 Oct 2019
TL;DR: The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM as discussed by the authors explores the importance of mentorship, the science of mentoring relationships, mentorship of underrepresented students in STEM, and institutional cultures that support mentorship.
Abstract: Mentorship is a catalyst capable of unleashing one's potential for discovery, curiosity, and participation in STEMM and subsequently improving the training environment in which that STEMM potential is fostered. Mentoring relationships provide developmental spaces in which students' STEMM skills are honed and pathways into STEMM fields can be discovered. Because mentorship can be so influential in shaping the future STEMM workforce, its occurrence should not be left to chance or idiosyncratic implementation. There is a gap between what we know about effective mentoring and how it is practiced in higher education. The Science of Effective Mentorship in STEMM studies mentoring programs and practices at the undergraduate and graduate levels. It explores the importance of mentorship, the science of mentoring relationships, mentorship of underrepresented students in STEMM, mentorship structures and behaviors, and institutional cultures that support mentorship. This report and its complementary interactive guide present insights on effective programs and practices that can be adopted and adapted by institutions, departments, and individual faculty members.
147 citations
Cites background from "Navigating the heteronormativity of..."
...Until recently, issues related to sexuality and gender have received little attention in STEMM (Yoder and Mattheis, 2016), and relatively few studies have explored sexualand gender-minority identities in the STEMM fields (Cech and Waidzunas, 2011; Riley, 2008)....
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References
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Book•
01 Jan 1959TL;DR: For instance, in the case of an individual in the presence of others, it can be seen as a form of involuntary expressive behavior as discussed by the authors, where the individual will have to act so that he intentionally or unintentionally expresses himself, and the others will in turn have to be impressed in some way by him.
Abstract: hen an individual enters the presence of oth ers, they commonly seek to acquire information about him or to bring into play information about him already possessed. They will be interested in his general socio-economic status, his concep tion of self, his attitude toward them, his compe tence, his trustworthiness, etc. Although some of this information seems to be sought almost as an end in itself, there are usually quite practical reasons for acquiring it. Information about the individual helps to define the situation, enabling others to know in advance what he will expect of them and what they may expect of him. Informed in these ways, the others will know how best to act in order to call forth a desired response from him. For those present, many sources of information become accessible and many carriers (or “signvehicles”) become available for conveying this information. If unacquainted with the individual, observers can glean clues from his conduct and appearance which allow them to apply their previ ous experience with individuals roughly similar to the one before them or, more important, to apply untested stereotypes to him. They can also assume from past experience that only individuals of a par ticular kind are likely to be found in a given social setting. They can rely on what the individual says about himself or on documentary evidence he provides as to who and what he is. If they know, or know of, the individual by virtue of experience prior to the interaction, they can rely on assumptions as to the persistence and generality of psychological traits as a means of predicting his present and future behavior. However, during the period in which the indi vidual is in the immediate presence of the others, few events may occur which directly provide the others with the conclusive information they will need if they are to direct wisely their own activity . Many crucial facts lie beyond the time and place of interaction or lie concealed within it. For example, the “true” or “real” attitudes, beliefs, and emotions of the individual can be ascertained only indirectly , through his avowals or through what appears to be involuntary expressive behavior. Similarly , if the individual offers the others a product or service, they will often find that during the interaction there will be no time and place immediately available for eating the pudding that the proof can be found in. They will be forced to accept some events as con ventional or natural signs of something not directly available to the senses. In Ichheiser ’s terms, 1 the individual will have to act so that he intentionally or unintentionally expresses himself, and the others will in turn have to be impressed in some way by him.…
33,615 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1990TL;DR: The body politics of Julia Kristeva and the Body Politics of JuliaKristeva as mentioned in this paper are discussed in detail in Section 5.1.1 and Section 6.2.1.
Abstract: Preface (1999) Preface (1990) 1. Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire I. 'Women' as the Subject of Feminism II. The Compulsory Order of Sex/Gender/Desire III. Gender: The Circular Ruins of Contemporary Debate IV. Theorizing the Binary, the Unitary and Beyond V. Identity, Sex and the Metaphysics of Substance VI. Language, Power and the Strategies of Displacement 2. Prohibition, Psychoanalysis, and the Production of the Heterosexual Matrix I. Structuralism's Critical Exchange II. Lacan, Riviere, and the Strategies of Masquerade III. Freud and the Melancholia of Gender IV. Gender Complexity and the Limits of Identification V. Reformulating Prohibition as Power 3. Subversive Bodily Acts I. The Body Politics of Julia Kristeva II. Foucault, Herculine, and the Politics of Sexual Discontinuity III. Monique Wittig - Bodily Disintegration and Fictive Sex IV. Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions Conclusion - From Parody to Politics
21,123 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the relationship between information control and personal identity, including the Discredited and the Discreditable Social Information Visibility Personal Identity Biography Biographical Others Passing Techniques of Information Control Covering.
Abstract: CONTENTS 1. Stigma and Social Identity Preliminary Conceptions The Own and the Wise Moral Career 2. Information Control and Personal Identity The Discredited and the Discreditable Social Information Visibility Personal Identity Biography Biographical Others Passing Techniques of Information Control Covering 3. Group Alignment and Ego Identity Ambivalence Professional Presentations In-Group Alignments Out-Group Alignments The Politics of Identity 4. The Self and Its Other Deviations and Norms The Normal Deviant Stigma and Reality 5. Deviations and Deviance
17,631 citations
TL;DR: This paper explored the race and gender dimensions of violence against women of color and found that the experiences of women of colour are often the product of intersecting patterns of racism and sexism, and how these experiences tend not to be represented within the discourse of either feminism or antiracism.
Abstract: Over the last two decades, women have organized against the almost routine violence that shapes their lives. Drawing from the strength of shared experience, women have recognized that the political demands of millions speak more powerfully than the pleas of a few isolated voices. This politicization in turn has transformed the way we understand violence against women. For example, battering and rape, once seen as private (family matters) and aberrational (errant sexual aggression), are now largely recognized as part of a broad-scale system of domination that affects women as a class. This process of recognizing as social and systemic what was formerly perceived as isolated and individual has also characterized the identity politics of people of color and gays and lesbians, among others. For all these groups, identity-based politics has been a source of strength, community, and intellectual development. The embrace of identity politics, however, has been in tension with dominant conceptions of social justice. Race, gender, and other identity categories are most often treated in mainstream liberal discourse as vestiges of bias or domination-that is, as intrinsically negative frameworks in which social power works to exclude or marginalize those who are different. According to this understanding, our liberatory objective should be to empty such categories of any social significance. Yet implicit in certain strands of feminist and racial liberation movements, for example, is the view that the social power in delineating difference need not be the power of domination; it can instead be the source of political empowerment and social reconstruction. The problem with identity politics is not that it fails to transcend difference, as some critics charge, but rather the opposite- that it frequently conflates or ignores intra group differences. In the context of violence against women, this elision of difference is problematic, fundamentally because the violence that many women experience is often shaped by other dimensions of their identities, such as race and class. Moreover, ignoring differences within groups frequently contributes to tension among groups, another problem of identity politics that frustrates efforts to politicize violence against women. Feminist efforts to politicize experiences of women and antiracist efforts to politicize experiences of people of color' have frequently proceeded as though the issues and experiences they each detail occur on mutually exclusive terrains. Al-though racism and sexism readily intersect in the lives of real people, they seldom do in feminist and antiracist practices. And so, when the practices expound identity as "woman" or "person of color" as an either/or proposition, they relegate the identity of women of color to a location that resists telling. My objective here is to advance the telling of that location by exploring the race and gender dimensions of violence against women of color. Contemporary feminist and antiracist discourses have failed to consider the intersections of racism and patriarchy. Focusing on two dimensions of male violence against women-battering and rape-I consider how the experiences of women of color are frequently the product of intersecting patterns of racism and sexism, and how these experiences tend not to be represented within the discourse of either feminism or antiracism... Language: en
15,236 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1963TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the relationship between information control and personal identity, including the Discredited and the Discreditable Social Information Visibility Personal Identity Biography Biographical Others Passing Techniques of Information Control Covering.
Abstract: CONTENTS 1. Stigma and Social Identity Preliminary Conceptions The Own and the Wise Moral Career 2. Information Control and Personal Identity The Discredited and the Discreditable Social Information Visibility Personal Identity Biography Biographical Others Passing Techniques of Information Control Covering 3. Group Alignment and Ego Identity Ambivalence Professional Presentations In-Group Alignments Out-Group Alignments The Politics of Identity 4. The Self and Its Other Deviations and Norms The Normal Deviant Stigma and Reality 5. Deviations and Deviance
13,742 citations