The Intersecting Identities of Black Immigrant Women Students and Their Experiences in a School of Engineering

Despite efforts to diversify postsecondary engineering, the discipline continues to be demographically homogeneous. Because there are relatively few Black women in this discipline, we argue that the intersectional barriers experienced by Black immigrant women are not adequately theorized. To address this gap in the literature, in this qualitative case study, we explored the insights of 16 Black immigrant women studying engineering at a large public university in the United States. The research questions that guided this analysis were: (1) How do first-generation and second-generation Black immigrant women describe their experiences in undergraduate engineering, and (2) What strategies do these women use to persist in undergraduate engineering programs? We found that participants conveyed: (1) the salience of race and foreignness and (2) an understanding of their intersecting identities. These findings suggest that institutional support needs to be more responsive to the distinct needs of an increasingly diverse, yet under-supported, student group.