Despite efforts to increase female participation in STEM majors, women continue to be an underrepresented population in this domain, impacting the U.S. workforce. Researchers have identified a variety of factors that benefit engineering students without regard to gender (mentoring; student-faculty interactions; co-curricular involvement) but research is limited on how female engineering students foster a sense of belonging to the engineering major helping them persist through to graduation. Negative factors like gender bias or stereotyping are detailed in extant literature. Research needs to identify ways that contribute to female engineering connection and sense of belonging in engineering, not solely focus on the factors that negatively impact female engineering student trajectories. In an effort to address this gap in the literature, interviews with alumnae who graduated from engineering colleges across the U.S. were conducted. Data from this study provides a glimpse into what helped foster successful navigation through engineering majors for alumnae. Expanding current female and STEM literature, participants provide insights on pre-college, college, and on career influences. / text

Background: Women, as managers and engineers, are both within minorities, and even though the number of women graduating with an engineering degree has been increasing for the last years, there are still a lot of women that never enter or drift away from the engineering work environment. It appears to be a known career choice for female engineers to move into a managerial position, and could that be one of the reasons why the gender gap in engineering is not decreasing as much as it could? Purpose: This research took on the career development of female engineers who are working as managers. The purpose of this thesis was to understand what provokes the decision of female engineers to change careers, enter the field of management, and what career path they went through on their way towards that change. Method: The empirical data in this qualitative study was collected through semi-structured interviews, as they were considered a good way to truly understand the reasons women had for this career change. The interviewees were selected based on the requirements that they had to be women with a degree in engineering, to have worked in an engineering company, and to be currently working as managers in a non-engineering company. The interviewees all had experiences within the same culture, as they had all worked and lived in Sweden. The analysis of the data was thematic, because the focus was mainly on what was being said rather than how it was being said. Conclusion: The interviewed women stated that the connection they could establish with people, and being able to impact them, was the reason why they were in the leadership environment today. The reason they left, on the other hand, was mostly because their career had evolved in that direction. Their career drift either happened without them knowing it or they had made a conscious choice. The engineering background was necessary for their development, and it was perceived to have helped them in their positions as managers.

The purpose of this study was to determine the value of the Non Cognitive Questionnaire (NCQ) and the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) in predicting the academic achievement of first year female engineering students. Ancis and Sedlacek (1997) studied non-cognitive variables with a general population of undergraduate women. Their study validated the NCQ as a predictor of academic success for women students. The present study extends the work of Ancis and Sedlacek to examine female engineering students, a group for which no similar study has yet been published.Participants included 100 female first-year engineering students at a large, public Doctoral Research â Extensive institution located in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. By race or ethnicity, the participants were White, Non-Hispanic (81%), Black Non-Hispanic (9%), Asian or Pacific Islander (4%), Hispanic or Latino (1%), Non-Resident Alien (1%), and Unknown Race or Ethnicity (6%). This study defined academic achievement as first semester Grade Point Average, which was used as the dependent variable. Participants completed the NCQ during summer orientation. NCQ scale scores and SAT Verbal and Math scores were used as independent variables in a step-wise regression analysis.The major finding of this study was that the NCQ scale scores did not add to the predictive value of the SAT scores in determining the first semester GPA of female engineering students. This was an unexpected finding in light of previous research that had documented the value of using non-cognitive variables, and specifically the NCQ, to predict the academic success of groups that are a minority in their educational settings.Because the major finding of this study is at odds with a large body of similar studies, the most important implications of this study relate to understanding this difference. Included in the discussion are questions about the methodology used in previous NCQ studies and about the influence of the single institution that has been the site of almost all previous NCQ research. / Master of Arts

Text in English / The purpose of this study was to explore the work-life balance experiences of female engineers as they progress through various career life stages. Research has demon-strated that female engineers experience unique challenges as a result of gendered norms within male-dominated occupations, with changing life-roles, needs and ex-pectations across the various career life stages, impacting how they negotiate and perceive work-life balance. A qualitative research approach was followed using a her-meneutic phenomenology paradigm that employed a multiple case study approach consisting of semi-structured interviews with nine female engineers across three career life stages. The findings of the study confirmed current research into work-life balance, highlighting that work-life balance needs and expectations are different across the lifespan and are particularly affected by the changing nature of the work role within the lives of female engineers. Companies should consider changing their organisational culture to acknowledge the needs of female engineers in both family and work domains. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.Comm. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)