ASEE 2010: Institutional Ethnography: A research method to investigate the work-life experiences of women faculty members in STEM disciplines

Women and people of color continue to be underrepresented among engineering faculty. A diverse engineering faculty body is important because it increases the likelihood of equitable hiring practices and reduces the likelihood of a hostile workplace climate, among other reasons. In turn, research hypothesizes that a diverse engineering faculty body will attract, recruit, and retain diverse students to the engineering profession. While there are a bevy of research papers published every year to address this persistent concern, there are few new or innovative ideas informing our theoretical groundwork for understanding these underrepresentations.

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ASEE 2010: “The image of a woman engineer:” Women’s identities as engineers as portrayed by historical newspapers and magazines, 1930-1970

The Society of Women Engineers’ National Collection is an archive with rich potential for investigating the historical story of women’s identities as engineers. Filled with newspaper and magazine clippings, oral histories of pioneer women engineers, and SWE’s own institutional history, these archives allow us to see how women engineers were skillfully positioned as acceptably feminine, despite their peculiar profession. Continue reading “ASEE 2010: “The image of a woman engineer:” Women’s identities as engineers as portrayed by historical newspapers and magazines, 1930-1970”

A great 2010 ASEE

We have returned to Purdue from a great and productive ASEE conference, where we got good feedback and met lots of folks interested in our research and with their own interesting work. We’ll be posting our slides from our 4 presentations here in the next few days, so be sure to check back soon!

Image of RIFE group members Banerjee, Pawley, Nelson, and Hoegh
RIFE group members Banerjee, Pawley, Nelson, and Hoegh

A fun romp at UW-Madison

I had a great time talking with folks at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Friday, May 7. I was invited there by the Society of Women Engineers, via a program called the Celebrating Women in Science and Engineering mini-grant program funded by the Women in Science and Engineering Leadership Institute (WISELI). Thanks again for the opportunity to visit.

My slides are below, and you can watch the video of the presentation here.