African American women are less likely than African American men, White men, and White women to pursue the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) (Ceci & Williams, 2007; Charleston, George, Jerlando, Jackson, Berhanu, & Amechi, 2014; Perna, et al., 2009; Syed & Chemers, 2011). This is especially true for the field of engineering, as approximately 1% of undergraduate African American women declared engineering as a major during the 2013-2014 academic year (Yoder, 2015). The low enrollment of African American women in engineering programs in the United States may be attributed to several factors including: the Whiteness of the field (Brown, Morning, & Watkins, 2005), the experience of stereotype threat in the field
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The report paved the way for research on women of color in STEM fields; however, additional research is required to address certain gaps. Specifically, research that focuses on the experiences of African American women engineering students should be expanded past the following limitations. First, research tends to combine all STEM fields together, making it difficult to parse the specific experiences of engineering students. Second, if research does specifically focus on engineering students, it tends to coalesce all women of color or all African Americans making it problematic to focus specifically on African American women’s experiences. Third, research on African American women engineers is centered on those currently working as engineers while neglecting African American women engineering students. Fourth, research that relies on statistical analysis tends to have smaller numbers of African American females, making some of the conclusions drawn questionable when compared to the significantly larger numbers of White men and women. Some quantitative research articles attempt to oversample in order to remedy this problem; however, the numbers of African American female engineering students still pale in comparison to those of their White and male
The report paved the way for research on women of color in STEM fields; however, additional research is required to address certain gaps. Specifically, research that focuses on the experiences of African American women engineering students should be expanded past the following limitations. First, research tends to combine all STEM fields together, making it difficult to parse the specific experiences of engineering students. Second, if research does specifically focus on engineering students, it tends to coalesce all women of color or all African Americans making it problematic to focus specifically on African American women’s experiences. Third, research on African American women engineers is centered on those currently working as engineers while neglecting African American women engineering students. Fourth, research that relies on statistical analysis tends to have smaller numbers of African American females, making some of the conclusions drawn questionable when compared to the significantly larger numbers of White men and women. Some quantitative research articles attempt to oversample in order to remedy this problem; however, the numbers of African American female engineering students still pale in comparison to those of their White and male