“A detailed analysis of the different types of capital showed how complex the process is for young women to pursue engineering and what extensive resources and supports are needed, especially for young women of color and from lower economic strata, to end up as engineers.”
— Jill M. Bystydzienski, Ph.D.
Research nationally and globally continues to confirm that women, people of color, people with disabilities, and first-generation students remain underrepresented in engineering and computer science.
A seven-year longitudinal study conducted in 10 U.S. public high schools examined the economic, social, and cultural capital that affected women’s decisions to study and pursue engineering. Referred to as “engineering capital,” this concept pertains to resources specific to engineering that can make the difference in whether or not young women move forward toward a future as an engineer.
The study, “Diverse, High-Achieving Young Women and the Pursuit of Engineering: Access, Accumulation, and Activation of Capital,”1 published in the Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, investigates how race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status affect high-achieving young women’s ability to pursue and complete engineering degrees through the FREE and FREE Pathways programs. High achieving is defined as earning As or Bs in high school math and science, including advanced placement or international baccalaureate courses.
The research was a continuation of a pilot study, conducted by Monica Bruning for her dissertation, with a few high-achieving high school girls who voluntarily participated in an after-school program that introduced them to engineering. Desirous of expanding the project, Bruning reached out to Jill M. Bystydzienski, Ph.D., emerita professor of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at The Ohio State University, and Margaret A. Eisenhart, emerita professor of educational foundations, policy, and practice at the University of Colorado Boulder to help secure grants.
They received a three-year National Science Foundation grant that supported a project called FREE — Female Recruits Explore Engineering — from 2006 to 2009. FREE offered diverse 10th grade girls exposure to engineering and STEM. Implemented in public high schools in Colorado, Iowa, and Ohio, FREE launched with 132 participants.
FREE sought to spark and sustain interest in engineering among academically talented girls who might not otherwise have access to engineering as a field of study or a career pursuit. The research explored how young women come to know and learn about engineering and how best to encourage them to think seriously about engineering as a career. Students attended career fairs, visited engineering colleges and workplaces, and met with practicing engineers, among other engagements. In subsequent years, students completed hands-on group engineering projects, met with volunteer mentors, and created a wiki page with the researchers to ask questions and share their experiences.
Of the original group, 61%, or 81 students, were active in FREE by the end of the initial program. Of that group, two-thirds were from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, two-thirds were from lower-income families, and two-thirds were first-generation students.
“We soon realized we needed to follow our participants for longer than three years,” says Dr. Bystydzienski, lead author of the journal article. The researchers applied for and received an NSF bridge award for the fourth year of study and subsequently received another NSF three-year award to continue their research on economic, social, and cultural capital.
Capital refers to resources that women need to gather and activate to successfully negotiate their pathways to and in engineering, Dr. Bystydzienski says. For example, social resources might include access to engineering networks that provide opportunities; cultural capital refers to knowledge of how “the system” works or values associated with getting good grades, and economic capital might include access to scholarships and family income. “All are needed for a successful entry into and retention in engineering,” she says.
The FREE Pathways study (2009-2013) followed 57 girls who remained committed to the program. Researchers used qualitative data covering the high school-to-college pathways of these young women, many of whom were women of color from low-income families. The researchers created 57 individual case studies and organized the data into three categories: those who planned to pursue engineering at the end of high school and graduate with an engineering degree (8); those who were serious about engineering at the end of high school but did not enroll or stay enrolled in engineering in college (11), and others or non-engineering (38). In the initial sample, the first subgroup consisted of mostly white and higher income students; the second and third categories had mostly less privileged students. The non-engineering students continued in FREE to retain academic and mentoring support.
The researchers then identified seven participants as case studies to illustrate patterns in their access, accumulation, and activation of engineering capital as they transitioned from high school to college and continued in college. All seven were well-primed and well-supported to major and persist in engineering, Dr. Bystydzienski says, yet only one of the women who was not white or Asian and not high income graduated with an engineering degree.
What surprised Dr. Bystydzienski and her co-investigators was how few of the girls in FREE pursued a course of study in engineering after high school.
“After the first year of the FREE study, the majority of the participants were interested in pursuing engineering as a career and many even identified specific engineering fields of interest, such as electrical or environmental. I therefore expected that a sizable number would end up studying engineering in college,” Dr. Bystydzienski says. However, when they applied for college two years later, roughly 20% took the step forward and even fewer remained in engineering and earned a degree, she says.
“A detailed analysis of the different types of capital showed how complex the process is for young women to pursue engineering and what extensive resources and supports are needed, especially for young women of color and from lower economic strata, to end up as engineers. As we reviewed these cases, it became clear that experiences with engineering capital were linked with race and socioeconomic status.
“Engineering still remains a highly male-dominated field and women, especially women of color and those who are economically disadvantaged, encounter barriers to access, accumulation, and activation of these forms of capital,” she says.
“While our sample of young women continuing into college education is small, our findings have several important implications for engineering education.”
Key research takeaways
- High school can be a social leveler when it comes to accessing cultural and social capital. In the well-resourced high schools included in this study, and where a program like FREE was available, diverse female students were provided important science and engineering resources in preparation for college.
- It is important to understand how positioning in the U.S. social hierarchy can be affected by the ability to continue to accumulate and activate capital and how relevant institutions respond to these efforts. In the case of engineering, a considerable amount of economic capital is required to study in this field and pursue a career. Specific forms of social and cultural capital must be available and successfully activated. No one form of relevant capital was completely inaccessible to any of the young women, and no one form could fully compensate for other forms.
- All the women in the study worked hard to gain some of this capital. Aspirational and navigational capital played an important part in supporting young women of color, in particular, to stay the course in engineering despite the obstacles. Yet, the coordination and stamina required to accumulate and activate resources to successfully pursue engineering seems to be very hard to achieve without the benefit of a highly privileged set of circumstances. The resources and coordination required seem to put an engineering career out of reach for any but already privileged young women, and even then, self-doubt and marginalization can jeopardize their progress.
Endnotes
- Bystydzienski, J. M. and Eisenhart, M. A. (2024). High-Achieving Young Women and the Pursuit of Engineering: Access, Accumulation, and Activation of Capital. (Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 30(3): 1-28.
