WEBVTT 1 00:00:09.931 --> 00:00:11.160 Malcolm Forbes once wrote that 2 00:00:11.160 --> 00:00:14.979 line:15% diversity is the art of thinking independently together. 3 00:00:14.979 --> 00:00:16.795 line:15% Diversity is also a growing concern 4 00:00:16.795 --> 00:00:18.869 in the melting pot that is the United States 5 00:00:18.869 --> 00:00:22.051 because as we have a growing, evermore diverse population, 6 00:00:22.051 --> 00:00:23.818 we have new issues arising that require 7 00:00:23.818 --> 00:00:25.769 more innovative solutions. 8 00:00:25.769 --> 00:00:27.229 Fortunately for us, researchers 9 00:00:27.229 --> 00:00:30.509 have correlated innovation and diversity 10 00:00:30.509 --> 00:00:32.400 because if you have people with diverse backgrounds 11 00:00:32.400 --> 00:00:34.699 working on the same problem, you're more likely to come up 12 00:00:34.699 --> 00:00:36.770 with an innovative solution. 13 00:00:36.770 --> 00:00:39.741 This is especially important in fields such as engineering 14 00:00:39.741 --> 00:00:42.651 and one form of diversity for engineering is women. 15 00:00:42.651 --> 00:00:46.509 In the 1960s, women had a 1% enrollment rate in engineering 16 00:00:46.509 --> 00:00:49.387 and today that number is up to around 20% 17 00:00:49.387 --> 00:00:52.461 but recent data from the NSF found that in the early 2000s 18 00:00:52.461 --> 00:00:55.061 and into today, the percentage of women enrolling 19 00:00:55.061 --> 00:00:57.501 in engineering has been declining. 20 00:00:57.501 --> 00:01:00.188 In response to this, I formulated a qualitative study 21 00:01:00.188 --> 00:01:02.200 to analyze the motivations and threats 22 00:01:02.200 --> 00:01:04.461 to women enrolling in engineering. 23 00:01:04.461 --> 00:01:06.159 I interviewed nine different women from across 24 00:01:06.159 --> 00:01:08.909 the Bagley College of Engineering and different majors 25 00:01:08.909 --> 00:01:10.667 and I asked them questions such as, 26 00:01:10.667 --> 00:01:13.010 "When did you first hear of engineering?, 27 00:01:13.010 --> 00:01:14.491 "Why did you choose engineering?", 28 00:01:14.491 --> 00:01:16.691 "Why did you choose your field in particular?", 29 00:01:16.691 --> 00:01:18.880 "What's the hardest part of being an engineer?", 30 00:01:18.880 --> 00:01:21.657 "What do you enjoy about being a female engineer?", 31 00:01:21.657 --> 00:01:22.538 "Why do you think other women 32 00:01:22.538 --> 00:01:24.259 "are not going into the field?", 33 00:01:24.259 --> 00:01:26.269 and as well as if there was anything else 34 00:01:26.269 --> 00:01:28.288 that they wanted to tell me or share. 35 00:01:28.288 --> 00:01:31.197 I then took these interviews and transcribed them 36 00:01:31.197 --> 00:01:32.877 and myself and another researcher used 37 00:01:32.877 --> 00:01:35.549 systematic qualitative coding methods to identify 38 00:01:35.549 --> 00:01:37.378 the different motivations and threats 39 00:01:37.378 --> 00:01:39.568 to women enrolling in engineering. 40 00:01:39.568 --> 00:01:42.288 Now, the top four threats I have listed up here. 41 00:01:42.288 --> 00:01:43.949 Each one of them has a quote next to it 42 00:01:43.949 --> 00:01:44.819 so you can kind of see how 43 00:01:44.819 --> 00:01:47.360 the qualitative coding method works. 44 00:01:47.360 --> 00:01:49.839 Now, the first three, a lack of community, 45 00:01:49.839 --> 00:01:52.589 lack of role models, and lower self-efficacy, 46 00:01:52.589 --> 00:01:54.528 where self-efficacy is a woman's belief 47 00:01:54.528 --> 00:01:56.758 in her own ability to accomplish tasks. 48 00:01:56.758 --> 00:01:58.708 So, they have a lower belief in their own ability 49 00:01:58.708 --> 00:02:00.939 to accomplish engineering tasks. 50 00:02:00.939 --> 00:02:02.739 These three things were all attributed 51 00:02:02.739 --> 00:02:05.829 to the lower female enrollment rate itself. 52 00:02:05.829 --> 00:02:07.888 This is because they don't have very many women, 53 00:02:07.888 --> 00:02:09.339 so they have a lack of community. 54 00:02:09.339 --> 00:02:11.320 They don't have very many role models in front of them, 55 00:02:11.320 --> 00:02:12.640 so they have lack of role models. 56 00:02:12.640 --> 00:02:14.888 And because they don't see other women accomplishing 57 00:02:14.888 --> 00:02:18.469 these engineering tasks, they have a lower self-efficacy. 58 00:02:18.469 --> 00:02:20.429 The last one, stereotype threat, came from more of 59 00:02:20.429 --> 00:02:24.099 a societal pressures, where society says that women 60 00:02:24.099 --> 00:02:25.188 aren't just good at math and science 61 00:02:25.188 --> 00:02:27.428 and how that impacted the engineering identity 62 00:02:27.428 --> 00:02:29.640 of the different participants. 63 00:02:29.640 --> 00:02:31.029 In the future, I want to propose a study 64 00:02:31.029 --> 00:02:32.709 that looks further into stereotype threat 65 00:02:32.709 --> 00:02:36.720 and how it impacts minority groups outside of just women 66 00:02:36.720 --> 00:02:39.099 because at the end of the day, it's incredibly important 67 00:02:39.099 --> 00:02:43.266 that we all think independently but that we work together.