“I am Committed to Engineering”: The Role of Ego Identity in Black Women’s Engineering Career Persistence

Abstract:The underrepresentation of Black women in STEM, coupled with the urgent need for more qualified STEM workers to fill jobs left vacant by an aging US workforce, resulted in a plethora of studies exploring identity development related to STEM degree pursuance and career aspirations. Although several aspects of identity development were explored, ego identity development, which is considered a foundational concept when studying occupational ideology, has been ignored. Therefore, we utilized Marcia’s ego identity statuses to understand the ego identity development of nine undergraduate Black women engineering majors. Ultimately, participants were either identity achieved or identity foreclosed. Furthermore, early exposure to STEM, interest in STEM, commitment to engineering, and parent support mattered for the undergraduate Black women engineering majors.