Professor Profile: Supporting Women Through Research and In-class Experiences

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Photo by Mark Simons provided by Purdue University
It is no secret that the number of women aren’t numerically greater than men in the STEM fields, especially in many engineering majors. At Purdue, while the percentage of women grow each year, the ratio is still less than half. This naturally comes with some benefits and some drawbacks, but professors at Purdue are committed to minimizing those drawbacks and creating a safe, equal space for everyone. 

Dr. Matthew Ohland is a First-Year Engineering professor with a research emphasis on Engineering Education. He has devoted his career to researching team-member effectiveness, marginalized populations within engineering, and creating an inclusive learning environment. He values each of his students and makes valuable efforts to level the playing field for underrepresented populations such as women, LGBTQ+ students, and racial minorities. Dr. Ohland says that diversity and inclusion are about opportunity and social justice. Giving all students the opportunity to be successful enables each person to come up with the next great idea; not enabling these students would be a lost opportunity at greatness. 

Dr. Ohland not only has these strong beliefs of educational equality, but he exercises them in the classroom. One valuable aspect of Purdue’s inclusivity is that during the application process, Purdue asks the students for their Preferred Name, which is a chance for each student to share the name that they would like to be called during their time at Purdue. This name will be the name that the students registers for classes under and the name that the teacher is given on the roster. Dr. Ohland appreciates this feature of Purdue’s application process because he will know to call the student by the name that they identify with rather than the name given at birth. On the first day of each semester’s classes, Dr. Ohland also asks for each student to turn in a note card to share their preferred pronouns so he can respect their identities and avoid using incorrect language later. 

 As far as the way the classes are set up, Dr. Ohland says that he and his Teaching Assistants monitor groups carefully. Several times per semester, students are required to submit honest feedback on the members of their groups. There have been instances where male students will submit feedback on their female counterparts saying that a specific woman is bossy or overbearing. When this happens, Dr. Ohland will observe the behavior. If the female is not being overbearing, but is simply being strong a leader, he will address the males and let them know that women can be as powerful and directive as men are.

While Dr. Ohland is very inclusive in the classroom, he also devotes his research to making group dynamics welcoming and safe. When putting students into teams of four, research has shown that putting two marginalized students together into the group will make the marginalized students more comfortable and successful. For example, in groups of four, there will never be one girl with three boys. It would instead be two girls with two boys. He makes this intention very clear at the beginning of the semester so it is clear that the groups have diversity so the minority students can feel comfortable with sharing their ideas and workloads equally.

 Dr. Ohland is passionate and phenomenal, but he is not the only professor that believes in the value of diversity. Many professors at Purdue make intentional efforts similar to his and this is reflected in the learning environment on campus. Creating a safe space for people of all backgrounds to be excellent and succeed is important to Purdue and is reflected in and outside of the classroom.
- Cassidy Viox, Recruitment Project Committee

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