The Identification of Alters That Influence Asian Women’s Career Intentions in Civil Engineering

Hwangbo Bae; Denise Rutledge Simmons,

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Conference: 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Baltimore , Maryland
Publication Date: June 25, 2023
Start Date: June 25, 2023
End Date: June 28, 2023
Conference Session: Equity, Culture & Social Justice in Education Division (EQUITY) Technical Session 10
Tagged Divisions: Equity and Culture & Social Justice in Education Division (EQUITY)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 17
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--44455
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/44455
Download Count: 366

Paper Authors

biography

Hwangbo Bae University of Florida

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Dr. Hwangbo Bae works as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In his current position, he is in charge of examining and facilitating mentoring systems at the National Engineering Research Center, which is funded by the National Science Foundation. Prior to joining the University of Michigan, he was a student pursuing a doctorate in civil engineering at the University of Florida's Simmons Research Lab. He earned a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Civil and Environmental Engineering both from Virginia Tech. Leadership development, workforce development, career development, professional work values, social ties, worker safety, and intersectionality studies are among his research interests.

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biography

Denise Rutledge Simmons, P.E. University of Florida orcid.org/0000-0002-3401-2048

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Denise R. Simmons, Ph.D., PE, PMP, LEED-AP is the Associate Dean for Workforce Development in the Wertheim College of Engineering and a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering at the University of Florida. Her research answers national calls for construction and civil engineering professionals to develop new competencies to navigate the changes of evolving workforce demographics, technology, and organizational structures. As director of the Simmons Research Lab, she researches competency development via education and training; interactions between humans and technology; and conceptualization of leadership in engineering. Supported by more than $8.7M in federal funding and with results disseminated across more than 100 refereed publications, her research aims to develop and sustain an effective engineering workforce with specific emphasis on inclusion. She has over ten years of construction and civil engineering experience working for energy companies and as a project management consultant; nearly 20 years of experience in academia; and extensive experience leading and conducting multi-institutional, workforce-related research and outreach. She holds civil engineering degrees (BS, MS, PhD) from Clemson University and is a registered Professional Engineer (PE), Project Management Professional (PMP), and Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professional (LEED-AP).

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Abstract

The supply disparity of talented workers in the U.S. civil engineering industry has been identified as a consistent issue. The civil engineering industry is dominated by old, White professionals, and there is a need for the recruitment of populations with diverse backgrounds. Yet, the number of civil engineering students decreased by 3000 between 2010 and 2020. The reduction of full-time student enrollment in the field is exacerbated by the fact that not all engineering graduates choose to work in the same field after graduation. While it is important to recruit students across all populations, little is known about the experiences of underrepresented minority students, such as Asian American women. Asian American women can exhibit transformational leadership through collaboration, compassion, and empathy. These leadership-coupled skills are identified as important by working professionals in civil engineering and can contribute to improving team performance and organizational productivity. Despite their talents, Asian women are understudied, and their racialized and gendered experiences are only partly represented in the studies of women of color in civil engineering research. Because they are overrepresented by race and underrepresented by gender, their experiences should be studied while considering gender, racial, and environmental factors. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to raise the voice of Asian American women in civil engineering by identifying people they indicate as influential in their development of career intentions. To better understand the experiences of Asian American civil engineering students, this paper seeks to identify the influential people, or, in this study, alters, that Asian American women identify as influential for their career choice in civil engineering. This study explored the experiences of 10 Asian American women in civil engineering who were in their third or greater year of their undergraduate program. An inductive approach was utilized to examine the alters of Asian American women by collecting data from a name generator. The researcher analyzed the data by developing codes and categories based on alters’ demographic and occupational backgrounds. This study identified professional, academic, and non-civil engineering alters as influential for Asian American women’s formation of career intention. The findings of this study contribute to the growing body of research on intersectionality studies and the career development of Asian women in civil engineering. The findings of this paper can be used as a guideline for engineering scholars to identify and compare the alters of Asian American women in other similar fields. This paper also informs educators and career counselors to offer more opportunities for Asian American women in civil engineering to interact with alters identified as influential and important for their formation of career intention. This study could also help employers improve support systems that help Asian women make professional connections and move into civil engineering jobs by giving them more chances to network.

Citation
Format

Bae, H., & Simmons,, D. R. (2023, June), The Identification of Alters That Influence Asian Women’s Career Intentions in Civil Engineering Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--44455

TY - CPAPER
AB - The supply disparity of talented workers in the U.S. civil engineering industry has been identified as a consistent issue. The civil engineering industry is dominated by old, White professionals, and there is a need for the recruitment of populations with diverse backgrounds. Yet, the number of civil engineering students decreased by 3000 between 2010 and 2020. The reduction of full-time student enrollment in the field is exacerbated by the fact that not all engineering graduates choose to work in the same field after graduation. While it is important to recruit students across all populations, little is known about the experiences of underrepresented minority students, such as Asian American women. Asian American women can exhibit transformational leadership through collaboration, compassion, and empathy. These leadership-coupled skills are identified as important by working professionals in civil engineering and can contribute to improving team performance and organizational productivity. Despite their talents, Asian women are understudied, and their racialized and gendered experiences are only partly represented in the studies of women of color in civil engineering research. Because they are overrepresented by race and underrepresented by gender, their experiences should be studied while considering gender, racial, and environmental factors. Therefore, the goal of this paper is to raise the voice of Asian American women in civil engineering by identifying people they indicate as influential in their development of career intentions. To better understand the experiences of Asian American civil engineering students, this paper seeks to identify the influential people, or, in this study, alters, that Asian American women identify as influential for their career choice in civil engineering. This study explored the experiences of 10 Asian American women in civil engineering who were in their third or greater year of their undergraduate program. An inductive approach was utilized to examine the alters of Asian American women by collecting data from a name generator. The researcher analyzed the data by developing codes and categories based on alters’ demographic and occupational backgrounds. This study identified professional, academic, and non-civil engineering alters as influential for Asian American women’s formation of career intention. The findings of this study contribute to the growing body of research on intersectionality studies and the career development of Asian women in civil engineering. The findings of this paper can be used as a guideline for engineering scholars to identify and compare the alters of Asian American women in other similar fields. This paper also informs educators and career counselors to offer more opportunities for Asian American women in civil engineering to interact with alters identified as influential and important for their formation of career intention. This study could also help employers improve support systems that help Asian women make professional connections and move into civil engineering jobs by giving them more chances to network.
AU - Hwangbo Bae
AU - Denise Rutledge Simmons, P.E.
CY - Baltimore , Maryland
DA - 2023/06/25
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - The Identification of Alters That Influence Asian Women’s Career Intentions in Civil Engineering
UR - https://peer.asee.org/44455
DO - 10.18260/1-2--44455
ER -