Research Initiation: Recruiting More U.S. Women into Engineering Based on Stories from Morocco

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Economic forecasts predict that the U.S. will have a shortfall of approximately million STEM professionals over the next decade. The workforce shortfall can be addressed by recruiting and retaining a more diverse workforce. Due to the high percentage of women seeking STEM careers in other countries, this project aims to understand the impact of culture on career choice for women in engineering. The objective of this research is to examine differences in messaging received in Moroccan and American cultures to determine factors that contribute to women's decisions to pursue engineering degrees at higher rates in Morocco. The relationship between cultural dimensions, expectancies, values, and students׳ choice to pursue an engineering degree will be investigated. With the U.S. unable to shift the low female enrollment in some engineering fields, this is an opportunity to identify new ways to recruit and retain women in engineering based on stories from international students and American students with regards to their career choice. The research component of this effort will generate knowledge that can be used to increase the number of American women pursuing careers in engineering fields to meet U.S. workforce needs. The project builds on the state of the art for women in engineering by examining cultural differences for American and international, male and female students simultaneously.This exploratory, qualitative research utilizes interviews to understand students' intentions and cultural influences of Moroccan and American women and men engineering students. This study is designed to answer the following research question: How do engineering students from Morocco and the United States describe the cultural reasons that factored into their choice to pursue an engineering degree? The research plan utilizes a theoretical model of national culture combined with expectancy-value theory to determine relationships that exist between six cultural dimensions and the role of expectancy and value and students? choice to pursue an engineering degree. The study focuses on narratives for two cohorts of students. We are conducting two rounds of interviews with Moroccan students as they arrive in the U.S. while simultaneously interviewing U.S. students enrolled in the same engineering program. This project is grounded in theory and focused on revealing key factors regarding gender messaging in the U.S. from an outsider?s perspective. This project builds on the national effort to continue changing the conversation about engineering to make engineering more inclusive. Results from this study will be used to design messaging that can be used to broaden women׳s participation in engineering and other STEM disciplines.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.