Date of Award
Spring 2026
Document Type
Open Access Thesis
Department
Mechanical Engineering
First Advisor
Mostafa Mobli
Second Advisor
David Rocheleau
Abstract
This study investigates gendered experiences in undergraduate engineering education, with particular attention to academic validation, participation, and belonging. While prior research suggests disparities in retention and representation, these patterns are often examined through quantitative metrics such as grades, self-efficacy, or survey- based perceptions. Such approaches can provide limited insight into how students interpret and navigate engineering environments in practice. This study adds to the existing body of research by examining students’ lived academic experiences through qualitative analysis.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with undergraduate engineering students across multiple disciplines and academic levels. Interviews elicited detailed accounts of how students approached academic difficulty, sought confirmation of understanding, participated in coursework, and assessed their fit within engineering. Data was analyzed using an inductive thematic approach, allowing patterns to emerge within gender groups.
Findings identify five interrelated dimensions shaping students’ experiences: pathways to academic validation and sense-making, the timing and interpretation of difficulty, prior exposure to engineering culture, role enactment in collaborative work, and the development of belonging. Results indicate that men and women often engage with similar academic environments through distinct interpretive frameworks. Men more frequently described direct, authority-centered validation processes, interpreted early academic difficulty as expected and externally driven, and characterized belonging as an assumed condition stabilized through performance. In contrast, women described multi- step validation processes involving multiple sources, interpreted difficulty as indicative of preparedness, and experienced belonging as conditional, requiring sustained validation across academic and social contexts. Women also reported managing participation strategically and assuming integrative roles in group work.
These findings suggest that persistence in engineering is shaped not only by academic performance, but by how students interpret and respond to everyday academic interactions. Differences in validation, participation, and belonging reflect variations in how legitimacy is constructed within engineering environments. By utilizing lived experience, this study highlights how common educational structures can produce uneven experiences and identifies opportunities to support more equitable participation and persistence.
Rights
© 2026, Madison Lynn Burlett
Recommended Citation
Burlett, M. L.(2026). An Examination of Gendered Experiences in Undergraduate Engineering Education With Emphasis on Participation, Validation, And Persistence. (Master's thesis). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/8815