STEM Success: Perceptions of Women of Color at Community Colleges

Women of color, particularly African-Americans and Hispanics, have a science, and engineering degree attainment rate of 11% whereas White women have a rate of 29%. Research has demonstrated that these underrepresented minorities experience various racial/ethnic and gender issues that impact their academic success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. Most of this research was conducted within the context of predominantly White institutions. However, community colleges enroll a disproportionately high number of women of color, and less than half of these students earn a degree within six years. The purpose of this qualitative, case study was to explore the perceptions of women of color in science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs about their racial/ethnic and gender experiences while attending community colleges, and how these perceptions affected their success in these programs. Data were collected through face-to-face semi-structured interviews and a focus group discussion with a participant group of six Hispanic women in their second year at a purposely selected college located in a large Midwestern community college system. Face-to-face interviews were also conducted with two faculty members, and archival data was examined. Data were transcribed, imported, and analyzed using a qualitative data analysis software program for thematic coding. Findings revealed that women of color (Hispanic) students in a STEM program at a community college encountered experiences, including gender stereotypes, non-academic responsibilities, and organizational relationships, that influenced the perceptions they formed, which in turn impacted their level of motivation and decisions to persist to course/program completion. However, these women had no racial/ethnic experiences that impacted their educational persistence; this they attributed to the institution's culture and climate which embraced and regularly celebrated its diverse student body. These women of color formed perceptions of the negative gender stereotype experiences they encountered, usually at the hand of male classmates and male and female faculty, however, their perceptions revealed a rejection of such stereotypes and encouraged an increased STEM identity. Future research should consist of statistical analyses to determine the prevalence of campus cultures and climates that have diversity awareness practices that result in the absence of negative racial/ethnic experiences for female minority students.