“Sounds Like Something a White Man Should Be Doing”: The Shared Experiences of Black Women Engineering Students

Abstract

Abstract:Black women engineering students often find themselves in an uninviting space in a field dominated by White men. Thus, as Black women matriculate toward completion of their engineering degrees, they encounter instances of racism, sexism, and prejudice that result from the intersection of their race and gender. In an effort to identify and understand their similar experiences, the present study used Black feminist theory and intersectionality. Nine undergraduate Black women engineering students at a predominantly White institution engaged in semi-structured life history interviews. The interviews revealed two themes that exposed how others view participants, how participants view themselves, the similarities among Black women engineering students’ experiences, the different ways Black women can be oppressed, and the ways in which Black women experience and respond to different forms of prejudice.