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Examining the Association between Peer Support and Young Women’s Engineering Identity and Major Intentions

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Conference

2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Minneapolis, MN

Publication Date

August 23, 2022

Start Date

June 26, 2022

End Date

June 29, 2022

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Page Count

12

DOI

10.18260/1-2--41917

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/41917

Download Count

174

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Paper Authors

biography

Ursula Nguyen University of Texas at Austin

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Ursula Nguyen is a doctoral candidate in STEM education and graduate research assistant at The University of Texas at Austin. She has a B.S. in biomedical engineering from UT Austin. Her research interest on issues of equity in STEM education at the intersection of race/ethnicity and gender stems from her experiences as both an educator of STEM subjects and as a past engineering student.

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Catherine Riegle-Crumb

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Abstract

This quantitative study utilizes a purposive sample of high school girls who are members of SWENext, an organization that is part of the Society for Women Engineers (SWE). As young women interested in engineering, they have what can be viewed an ‘exceptional’ or non-gender-normative status. We examine whether their peers (both girls and boys) are supportive of their interest in engineering, and whether such support bolsters young women’s engineering identity and intentions to major in engineering. Results reveal that respondents receive much more support from their peers who are girls, compared to those who are boys. Additionally, our results demonstrate a clear gendered pattern in STEM support, in which support from young women peers is associated with strong engineering identity, while support from young men does not appear to be consequential.

Nguyen, U., & Riegle-Crumb, C. (2022, August), Examining the Association between Peer Support and Young Women’s Engineering Identity and Major Intentions Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41917

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