Dynamics of Mixed-Gender Teams in Engineering Education

Women are minoritized in U.S engineering programs and most engineering classrooms, and a variety of evidence indicates that they face inequities in team interactions. To reduce the impact of these inequities, some research indicates that instructors should avoid isolating women in engineering teams. While there are studies of mixed-gender teams in engineering education, most have focused on team performance and the team's final product, peer evaluation ratings, leadership self-efficacy, and the mode of collaboration. No comprehensive study of the dynamics of mixed-gender teams could be identified in the context of engineering education. This study investigates multiple measures of team dynamics holistically in mixed-gender teams: peer ratings, task interdependence, conflict, psychological safety, and satisfaction. Further, this research explores the extent to which women's satisfaction improves if their male teammates have similar characteristics (e.g., race/ethnicity and citizenship status) and how the women's satisfaction is related to the GPAs of their male teammates. The participants of this study were enrolled in a first-year engineering course, who provided information about various team dynamics four times during their teaming process. Mann-Whitney U tests were used to explore differences in team dynamics between mixed-gender teams and all-male teams. A multiple regression model was used to predict the women's team satisfaction based on their male team members' characteristics. Mixed-gender teams reported higher levels of task interdependence, but reported similar levels of conflict, psychological safety, and satisfaction. Women tended to be more satisfied when they worked with men who have similar citizenship status (based on class demographics, domestic women are more satisfied if their male teammates are also domestic). The results of this study include recommendations for instructors to improve team formation and facilitation.