The Effects of Gender and Race Intersectionality on Student Learning Outcomes in Engineering

  1. Whites, Asians, and men are generally more academically prepared in high school in comparison to Blacks, Latino/as, and women.
  2. Women assessed their engineering learning outcomes (particularly design and fundamental skills) lower than men, but assessed their professional learning outcomes (specifically communication and teamwork skills) higher than their male peers.
  3. Blacks and Latino/as also lag behind Whites and Asians in their self-reported GPAs in the engineering programs.
  4. The authors did not find any gender differences in regards to contextual competence.
  5. The impact of gender on learning outcomes varies by race/ethnicity.
  6. Black women tend to rate their design, contextual competence, and communication skills lower than their White counterparts. Even though Black men also rated these skills lower than Whites, these were not statistically significant differences. This finding might imply that Black women might be suffering a double effect because of their gender and race, which places them in twice a disadvantage, compared to Black men.
  7. There are no differences in self-assessed learning outcomes between Latinos/as and their White counterparts, with the exception that Latinas rated their leadership skills higher than Whites.
  8. The authors found that there are no differences in self-assessed learning outcomes between Latino/as and their White counterparts, with the exception that Latinas rated their leadership skills higher than Whites.
  9. Asian men and men from other racial/ethnic backgrounds assessed their fundamental skills and all three professional skills lower than White men.
  10. Women and men of color in engineering fields often hold lower self-rates of their learning, when compared to White students.
  11. Minorities in STEM majors self assess their STEM skills lower than their White counterparts.