HerStory is Our Story: Creating a Legacy Through Engineering and Other STEM Entrepreneurship

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Within most engineering fields of study, women of color are underrepresented in higher education. They also tend to be underrepresented throughout the engineering workforce. A past report from the U.S. Small Business Administration illustrated that female STEM PhD recipients are less likely to participate in entrepreneurial activity, such as owning a business. The project's investigators, comprising the support of the Center for Gender Equity in Science and Technology and Office of Entrepreneurship + Innovation at Arizona State University, will organize a 2 1/2-day, Women of Color Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Entrepreneurship Conference to share different STEM entrepreneurial opportunities available to women of color and showcase the successes of women of color entrepreneurs in engineering and other STEM fields. Focused on three major strands (i.e., entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship, and implicit bias), the conference will comprise six plenary sessions, four breakout sessions featuring seminars and group dialogues, and networking and mentorship opportunities. The conference will offer women of color attendees important information that shatter myths and highlight important pitfalls that often stifle STEM entrepreneurship among women of color. Three objectives will shape the conference: (a) increasing the participation of women of color in STEM entrepreneurial experiences and small business enterprise; (b) advancing entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial student engagement; and (c) transforming the ways that entrepreneurship, in general, and engineering entrepreneurship, in particular, are viewed, taught and experienced in higher education. Qualitative data will be collected and analyzed to determine the impact of the conference on attendees and gauge if the conference achieved the intended objectives. From the qualitative data collection findings, strategies will be developed and disseminated to help institutions of higher learning and the STEM industry with encouraging and supporting women of color, especially with their entrepreneurial endeavors.