Are Hardhats Required for Engineering Identity Construction? Gendered and Racialized Patterns in Canadian Engineering Graduates’ Professional Identities

Despite ongoing efforts to increase diversity in engineering, women continue to be underrepresented in the field, making up only 15% of licensed professional engineers in Canada [1]. This persistent underrepresentation has been explained in part by the challenges women and other underrepresented groups face in identifying with engineering, including feeling inauthentic in traditional engineering roles, and doing additional work to manage impressions and demonstrate professional fit [2-4]. Studies on engineers' career paths have also shown that underrepresented groups in engineering are more likely to be streamed into non-traditional career pathways with less social capital, negatively impacting their identification with the field [5-8]. As identification with the profession can predict the persistence of both engineering students and professionals [9], there is a need to understand factors that influence engineering identity, and how these factors may vary by demographics. Using data from a 2022 national survey of engineering graduates (n=982), we examine the engineering intensity of participants' professional identities disaggregated by gender and race. Our findings reveal that role type, technical focus, and application of background education were salient themes across the entire sample, reflecting the prioritization of traditional and technically oriented work in engineering culture [10]. For engineering educators, understanding the factors that influence engineering identity has implications for their ability to foster their students' sense of belonging, encourage their retention in the field, and improve their access to a range of meaningful engineering career paths.