Interacting with Ruling Relations: Engineering Graduate Student Experiences of Discrimination

Abstract

Background: The retention of traditionally underserved students remains a problem across graduate engineering programs. Women and men of color and white women leave graduate programs without their intended degree at higher rates than their white male peers. Experiences of discrimination may hinder degree progress for students with marginalized identities. Purpose/Hypothesis: This study investigated women and men of color and white women’s experiences of discrimination in graduate engineering programs through the lens of ruling relations. Design/Methods: Semi-structured qualitative individual interviews explored the experiences of doctoral engineering students. Comparative analysis methods uncovered themes derived from participants’ experiences of discrimination in engineering graduate education. Results: Women and men of color and white women experienced discrimination from peers, faculty, and advisors in settings such as classrooms, offices, and labs. Based on the themes and ruling relations identified, three significant findings can be distilled: (1) marginalized students recognize some of the norms and systems that marginalize them; (2) interactions that marginalize students are set into the social fabric of engineering and include excluding some students while including others; and (3) everyday interactions sustain and reproduce the oppressive norms. Conclusions: This study offers perspectives that can help graduate program directors and graduate advisors and faculty cultivate equitable environments and assist peer graduate students in understanding their marginalized peers. The implications of this work point to steps necessary to improve the graduate engineering environment for marginalized students.

Keywords

• phd students
• discrimination
• gender
• race/ethnicity