Who identifies as an engineering leader? Exploring influences of gender, race, and professional experience
- Conference
- Location
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Minneapolis, MN
- Publication Date
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August 23, 2022
- Start Date
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June 26, 2022
- End Date
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June 29, 2022
- Conference Session
- Page Count
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17
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--41852
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/41852
- Download Count
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553
Paper Authors
Andrea Chan
Andrea Chan is a Research Associate at the Troost Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering | University of Toronto
Cindy Rottmann University of Toronto
Cindy Rottmann is the Associate Director, Research at the Troost Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering at the University of Toronto. She conducts research on engineering leadership, engineers' professional practice, and ethics and equity in engineering. She is currently the Program Chair of the ASEE LEAD division.
Emily Moore University of Toronto
Dr. Emily Moore is the Director of the Troost Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering at the University of Toronto. Before becoming a professor in 2018, Emily spent more than twenty years as a professional engineer in industry, first with the Xerox Research Centre of Canada and then with Hatch Ltd. Emily's teaching and research interests include engineering leadership, systems thinking, and equity in engineering education and practice.
Dimpho Radebe University of Toronto
Dimpho Radebe is a PhD Student in Engineering Education at the University of Toronto, Canada. Her research interests include engineering culture and identity, engineering careers in the public sector, and ethics, equity and social justice in STEM. Dimpho has several years of professional experience in the public and private sectors in process engineering, as well as project management and implementation. She holds a BASc in Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto and an MSc in Management, specializing in Operations Management, from the University of Bath, UK. Her career vision is to be a driving force for efforts to diversify engineering and to challenge some of the dominant ways of thinking that might restrict diverse engineers with different viewpoints and varying career path interests.
Abstract
This study explored the ways engineering leadership identity among engineering graduates differed by personal, social, and professional characteristics and experiences. We conducted analysis of variances and multiple regression modelling with data collected through an online survey with 1,240 participants from Ontario, Canada. Our analysis found engineering leadership identity to be positively associated with both engineering identity and technicist identity, suggesting that identifying with engineering leadership does not require engineers to surrender their technicist engineering identity. Our study also found women and younger engineering graduates on average measured lower on engineering leadership identity compared to men and older graduates, respectively. However, in circumstances where perseverance may be required, members of underrepresented groups were found to have stronger engineering leadership identity compared to others, contrary to our initial expectations. These findings further underscored the likely important relationship between identity and persistence, especially for underrepresented groups. The study’s methodological limitations as well as implications for engineering leadership education, including the need to advance equity in ‘identity workspaces’, are explored.
Chan, A., & Rottmann, C., & Moore, E., & Radebe, D. (2022, August), Who identifies as an engineering leader? Exploring influences of gender, race, and professional experience Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41852
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