From isolating to blending contrasting self-attributes: a grounded theory of professional identity development in undergraduate architecture, engineering, and construction women

IntroductionScholars call for more studies to better understand how women in masculine and male-dominated (MM) STEM professions construct professional identities, while navigating gendered tensions. Yet, studies on professional identity development (PID) processes in undergraduate architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) women are sparse and mostly adopt structuralist perspectives and cross-sectional approaches which do not fully capture agency and trajectories in PID processes. The purpose is to construct a substantive theory that explains how self-attributes and engagements interact and progress as undergraduate AEC women construct their own professional identities.MethodsAdopting a constructivist and longitudinal grounded theory methodology, we utilize constant comparative analysis to analyze data from seven rounds of interviews with 78 undergraduate AEC women enrolled in five U.S. institutions.Results and discussionWe extend PID literature by providing a more nuanced and holistic understanding of agency and trajectory in AEC-PID as AEC women undergraduates progressively think, feel, and act as AEC women professionals. Our novel, From Isolating to Blending Contrasting Self-Attributes (IBCS) grounded theory explains how women gradually construct and integrate contrasting self-attributes to align with the contrasting attributes of AEC professions. Our new ‘womfessionalization’ concept captures a collectivist resilience mechanism by which STEM women with professional self-efficacy and motivation resolve gendered tensions by pursuing influential problem-solving and altruistic roles to transform innovation and inclusion for all within MM STEM contexts.ConclusionOur IBCS framework links diverse identity content, process, and context dimensions and highlights the importance of considering agency and trajectories in STEM women’s PID dialogues, theory, research, and practice. We contribute to efforts to broaden women’s participation in MM STEM professions to diversify innovation and reduce persistent workforce shortages.