Towards Civility: A Workshop to Evaluate and Inspire Collection and Analysis of Data on Harassing Behaviors in Engineering and Engineering Technology

Broadening participation and retaining students from diverse demographics in engineering majors and professionals in the STEM workforce is a high priority for the nation. However, harassing behaviors impede this goal. In 2018, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) published the report, Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

This report conceptualizes the most prevalent sexually harassing behaviors as gender harassment, described as “verbal and nonverbal behaviors that convey hostility, objectification, exclusion, or second-class status”. Evidence indicates that academia is second only to the military in prevalence of sexually harassing behaviors. Evidence also indicates that, within academia, engineering is second only to medicine.

Unfortunately, published engineering-specific data about frequency of occurrences are scarce and it is evident from this limited published data that there are substantial gaps in the knowledge base. Of particular concern is the disproportionate lack of data disaggregated by demographics (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender identification, sexual orientation, intersectionality), the lack of data disaggregated by discipline within engineering (e.g., aerospace engineering vs. chemical engineering), and the lack of data about the prevalence and nature of harassing behaviors during experiential learning opportunities (e.g., co-ops, internships, research experiences).

Ultimately, the results of this project will lay the foundation for future research and inform the design and implementation of interventions.

This project will bring together representatives of Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) in an effort to determine what data already exists at IHEs and could be published, to identify priorities for additional data, and to engage in a coordinated national effort to collect and analyze data. The workshop will occur virtually, over several months to give participants time in between sessions to engage in action assignments.

The workshop will employ a participatory action research method, known as Group-Level Assessment (GLA), to address the research questions: (1) Who is interested in conducting this work (i.e., who are our workshop participants and who do they identify as collaborators and other stakeholders)? (2) What do workshop participants (self-identified as interested in this topic) already know, and what do they want to know, about existing data (inside and outside their institutions) and the landscape in engineering? (3) What methodological tools and other skills and resources do researchers need for conducting research on harassing behaviors at their institutions? The use of GLA will emphasize the development of action plans determined by a broad group of stakeholders; engage workshop participants in the process of making decisions about data, priorities, and action plans; and actively model a method that could be used by workshop participants in their own data collection and analysis efforts.

In addition to published proceedings, outcomes of this workshop will include several toolkits on topics such as data collection and analysis, conversations with stakeholders at IHEs, and recruiting.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.