Nadia Spencer - A Confidence Challenge

A PhD civil engineering student contemplates quitting the degree program as her confidence is shaken while working as a TA for a male professor who has created a hostile work environment.

The case can be used to help develop career skills that may be useful to achieving long-term success, such as:

• Managing conflict / Respectful confrontations
• Cultivating resilience in the face of adversity
• Working smarter, not harder
• Understanding the Intersection of Gender & Race (Diversity)
• Managing workplace Harassment & Hostile Work environments
• Overcoming Stereotype threat / Impostor Syndrome
• Taking Legal Actions/Collecting Evidence/Data.

Upon completion of this case, students will be able to:

• Understand particular risks that are present for women of color in STEM workplaces
• Recognize and describe workplace harassment / hostile workplaces
• Formulate a strategic plan for action
• Determine what the next steps should be for the protagonist

• Cultivating resilience in the face of adversity
• Intersection of gender and race (diversity)
• Legal actions - Collecting evidence and data
• Managing conflict - Respectful confrontations
• Stereotype threat - Impostor Syndrome
• Working smarter, not harder
• Workplace harassment and hostile work environments (understanding microaggressions)