Despite the broad scope of literature on the topic of women in STEM, women in male-dominated spaces within academia are rarely given the opportunity to speak openly about their disadvantages in the toxic STEM culture. The current study implements a Critical Utopian Action Research method, Future Creating Workshop (FCW), with undergraduate women in STEM in order to highlight women’s voices in the context of their experiences in their undergraduate STEM programs, and develop a salient and timely action plan with women in STEM that capitalizes on their strengths and works towards dismantling barriers to their STEM participation. Four key themes that arose from the FCW that highlighted barriers women in STEM majors face: (1) Social Inequalities, (2) Research Accessibility, (3) Unwelcoming Academic Environment, and (4) Lack of Confidence. A fifth theme, ‘Need for Mentorship,’ developed from the action phase of the FCW, in which the women came up with suggestions for programming moving forward. The current study is couched in a larger participatory action research project, Participatory Opportunity for Women Researchers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (POWER in STEM). The purpose of POWER as a whole is to understand the lived experiences of women in STEM at the University of Cincinnati, and mobilize this knowledge to create an action plan that will influence programming.

尽管关于STEM中女性问题的文献范围很广，但学术界男性占主导地位的女性很少有机会公开谈论其在有毒STEM文化中的劣势。当前的研究实施了一项关键的乌托邦行动研究方法，即“未来创造工作坊（FCW）”，目的是与在STEM中的女性本科生进行交流，以便根据她们在本科STEM计划中的经验突出女性的声音，并制定一项及时而显着的行动计划。 STEM中的女性充分利用自己的优势，努力消除阻碍他们参加STEM的障碍。FCW提出了四个关键主题，这些主题突出了女性在STEM专业中面临的障碍：（1）社会不平等，（2）研究可及性，（3）不受欢迎的学术环境和（4）缺乏信心。第五个主题，FCW行动阶段制定了“需要指导”，在此阶段，妇女提出了前进计划的建议。当前的研究包含在一个更大的参与性行动研究项目中，即科学，技术，工程和数学领域的女性研究人员的参与性机会（STEM中的POWER）。总体而言，POWER的目的是了解辛辛那提大学（University of Cincinnati）的妇女在STEM中的生活经历，并动员这些知识来制定将影响编程的行动计划。和数学（STEM中的电源）。总体而言，POWER的目的是了解辛辛那提大学（University of Cincinnati）的妇女在STEM中的生活经历，并动员这些知识来制定将影响编程的行动计划。和数学（STEM中的电源）。总体而言，POWER的目的是了解辛辛那提大学（University of Cincinnati）的妇女在STEM中的生活经历，并动员这些知识来制定将影响编程的行动计划。