Work in progress: First year engineering women: A qualitative investigation of retention factors

Many universities face disturbing trends in the retention, underrepresentation and socialization of women students in engineering. The focus of this present study is the retention of first-year women students currently enrolled in a large state college of engineering in the Rocky Mountain region. Eight hour-long focus groups were conducted consisting of four to ten first-year women in a first-year engineering design projects course. Participants were asked a structured set of questions to investigate several topics. These focus groups were video-taped and later transcribed for analysis. Six research questions were posed for the current study: Do women express a loss of interest during the first year of the program?; Is there a chilly climate for first-year women in the college?; Do women´s self-efficacy levels change during the first year of the program?; Do academic performance levels play a role in women´s retention in engineering during the first year?; Do women have adequate support structures in the college during the first year?; Does the structure of the academic program instill career awareness in the first year? Implications for strategies to boost retention and an explication of the themes from the qualitative analysis will be discussed in the paper.