Traditional Prejudice, Modern Discrimination: An Examination of Microaggressions Targeting Male and Female Latinx Engineering Undergraduates

Much research has demonstrated that engineering education programs are less likely to retain women and students of color at every point in the pipeline. Although Latinx people have grown to be the largest minority group in the United States, they continue to remain a small percentage of engineering students. When examining retention, what has not been adequately considered are students' experiences with modern prejudice in an engineering education setting. Because traditional forms of racism and sexism have become taboo, students are more likely to be the targets of microaggressions than traditional discrimination. Microaggressions are ambiguous slights targeting people with marginalized identities that leave the victim unsure of how or unable to respond. Over time the seemingly small and inconsequential behaviors are likely to impact victim's self-efficacy and self-esteem. Microaggressions must be studied in an engineering education setting because these programs tend to be predominantly White and male. The current study assessed students' experiences of microaggressions guided by intersectionality and critical race theory. The intersectionality theory explains that prejudice and discrimination are experienced differently when targeting intersecting identities, such as race and gender, than race or gender alone. The current study used the theory of intersectionality to address how Latinx men had different experiences than Latinx women due to their differing intersecting identities. Critical race theory explains how the structure of engineering education enabled the Latinx students' experiences of racism and sexism in the form of microaggressions. The participants were eight Latinx males and six Latinx females attending a Historically Black University and a Predominantly White Institution. The participants were engineering majors 18 years of age or older and identified as cisgender. The institutions were both land grant institutions with well-known ABET-accredited engineering programs. Students participated in one-on-one interviews that lasted no more than an hour. The findings demonstrated that both male and female students experienced microaggressions in their engineering programs. More incidents took place at the PWI, and while male and female students had some experiences in common, their intersectional identities also led to different experiences. Both groups were treated as if they were not qualified to be in their engineering programs due to their ethnicity. Peers did not think they could do the work or ignored Latinx students' contributions. Women were more often ignored or told that they were not good enough due to their gender. Women were also more often criticized for speaking Spanish and scolded when they defended themselves. Men were more often subjected to derogatory jokes about "Mexicans" as criminals, "jokingly" accused of being criminals, and often reminded that their ethnicity would make it harder for them to succeed. These findings suggest that even among the most diverse generation in U.S. history, negative stereotypes about Latinx people as foreigners, criminals, and overly aggressive persist in an engineering education environment. While higher education is typically considered an inclusive progressive space, engineering education programs continue to ostracize people of color, in particular Latinx people, in an ever-increasingly racially diverse nation.