Research: Next Generation Engineers: Examining the Pathways of Adolescent Females in SWENext

尽管在过去的几十年里，女性在许多高地位和高收入的职业中所占的比例有所增加，比如医学和法律，但进入工程专业和职业的女性相对较少。在工程界，男性最多占80%左右，考虑到国家对工程师的需求，这一点尤其令人担忧。先前的研究发现，增加女性在工程领域的代表性的主要障碍之一是，与男孩相比，女孩从小就对工程表现出非常低的兴趣，最终不太可能选择在大学里攻读工程专业，尽管她们在数学和科学方面有很强的教育背景。因此，可能阻碍女孩对工程感兴趣的因素在本质上是社会和心理的，而不是学术的。为了详细研究这些因素，这项独特的研究将跟踪一大群已经表达对工程感兴趣的高中女生，目的是了解成年人和同龄人在她们生活中的支持，以及女孩自己对性别角色的看法，如何影响她们是否对该领域保持兴趣，并最终在大学选择工程专业。通过揭示支持女孩追求工程的因素，以及那些起到阻碍作用的因素，可以收集有价值的见解，然后可以利用这些见解更好地支持更多的女孩和年轻女性进入工程领域。具体来说，这个项目是德克萨斯大学和女性工程师协会之间的一项研究合作，它跟踪了一组参加SWENext的高中女生，SWENext是一个致力于识别和支持对工程感兴趣的年轻女性的组织。本研究将采用混合方法；定量部分将通过在线调查跟踪大约700-900名女孩的样本，为期三年（从高中过渡到大学），而定性部分将通过深度访谈跟踪30名女孩的纵向样本。该项目将解决几个目标，这些目标将以重要的方式扩展工程和STEM领域对不平等的研究。首先，该研究将调查SWENext成员的性别认同，以阐明这些年轻女性如何看待自己的性别，以及如何理解主流的性别规范和角色。其次，它将检查同龄人和成年人是否以及如何为SWENext成员对工程的兴趣提供支持和鼓励，认识到女孩与之互动的同龄人（如朋友、同学、课外参与者和在线同龄人）和成年人（如父母和老师），并考虑到潜在的冲突信息，因为有些人可能支持女孩的非规范兴趣，同时另一些人则否定这些兴趣。此外，研究小组将调查来自同性来源的支持是否更容易获得或更有影响力。这项研究的最终目的是研究这些因素如何影响女孩在大学里选择工程专业的决定，以及她们与工程相关的自我效能感和认同感。为了实现这三个广泛的目标，研究小组采用了交叉视角来研究女孩的观点、经历和结果如何因种族/民族背景而不同。该项目的结果将广泛传播给学术研究对象、教育从业者以及工程和工业领域的利益相关者，他们的目标是增加女性在工程领域的代表性。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Despite the increase in women's representation over the past few decades in many occupations that are both high-status and high-income, such as medicine and law, relatively few women enter engineering majors and occupations. At best, engineering remains approximately 80% male, which is particularly concerning given the national need for more engineers. Prior studies have found that one of the major roadblocks to increasing women's representation in engineering is the fact that compared to boys, girls express very low levels of interest in engineering from early ages, and ultimately are unlikely to choose to pursue engineering majors in college despite having strong educational backgrounds in math and science. Therefore, the factors that likely discourage girls' interest in engineering appear social and psychological in nature, rather than academic. To examine these factors in detail, this unique study will follow a large group of high school girls who have already expressed an interest in engineering, with the goal of understanding how the support of adults and peers in their lives, as well as girls' own views about gender roles, influence whether or not they remain interested in the field and ultimately choose an engineering major in college. By shedding light on the factors that support girls' pursuit of engineering, as well as those that function as deterrents, valuable insight can be gathered that can then be leveraged to better support a larger population of girls and young women to enter into engineering. Specifically, this project is a research collaboration between the University of Texas and the Society for Women Engineers that follows a purposive sample of high school girls participating in SWENext, an organization dedicated to identifying and supporting young women interested in engineering. This study will employ a mixed-methods approach; the quantitative component will follow a sample of approximately 700-900 girls over a period of three years (as they transition from high school into college) via online surveys, while a qualitative component will similarly follow a longitudinal sample of 30 girls over time with in-depth interviews. This project will address several aims that will extend the research on inequality in engineering and STEM fields in important ways. First, the study will examine the gender identity of SWENext members, to shed light on how these young women view their own gender and make sense of prevailing gender norms and roles. Second, it will examine whether and how peers and adults provide support and encouragement for SWENext members' interest in engineering, recognizing the array of peers (e.g. friends, classmates, extra-curricular participants, and online peers) and adults (e.g. parents and teachers) that girls interact with, and considering the potential for conflicting messages, as some are likely supportive of girls' non-normative interests at the same time that others negatively sanction such interests. Further, the research team will examine whether support is more available or impactful when it comes from same-gender sources. The final aim of the study is to examine how these factors help shape girls' decision to declare an engineering major in college, as well as their engineering-related self-efficacy and identity. In addressing these three broad aims, the research team employs an intersectional lens to examine how girls' views, experiences, and outcomes differ by racial/ethnic background. Results of the project will be widely disseminated to academic research audiences, as well as educational practitioners and stakeholders in engineering and industry who share the goal of increasing the representation of females in engineering.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.