The field of engineering continues to suffer from the underrepresentation of non-dominant groups despite concerted efforts towards change, particularly with respect to increasing women’s participation in the field. One way transformation in disciplines happens is through learning and the co-constitution of individuals and practices; as new students become engineers, they shape and transform the practice. In this article, I explore if and how a group of students are transforming the field of engineering through a process of prefiguration to be more inclusive of sexual orientation with the view that gender and sexual orientation intersect in meaningful ways. Based on ethnographic data and qualitative interviews, my findings suggest that students are able to change some aspects of engineering practice related to sexual identity, but that these changes have yet to impact the experience of gendered inequity. Despite increased recognition of sexual orientation in engineering, women continue to experience discrimination that men do not. Rather than remain defeatist in attempts to reach gender parity in the field, I conclude that prefiguration offers hope that it could be otherwise.

尽管在变革方面作出了共同努力，特别是在增加妇女对这一领域的参与方面，工程领域仍然受到非主流群体代表不足的困扰。学科变革发生的一种方式是通过学习以及个人和实践的共同组成。随着新学生成为工程师，他们将改变并改变实践。在本文中，我探讨了一群学生是否以及如何通过预变形过程来改变工程领域，以更加包容性取向，并认为性别和性取向以有意义的方式相交。根据人种学数据和定性访谈，我的发现表明，学生能够改变与性认同相关的工程实践的某些方面，但是这些变化尚未影响性别不平等的经历。尽管人们越来越认识到工程界对性取向的认识，但妇女继续遭受男人没有的歧视。我得出的结论是，预先配置可以带来希望，否则可能不会成为在实地实现性别均等的失败主义者。