The following research used data from the SSE to determine whether socialization or discrimination can explain the lower status of female engineers, compared to men. It was learned that female engineers with children are as committed to their careers as childless female engineers. Moreover, there is no difference in income or job status between these two groups. There is also no significant difference in income between male and female engineers when controlling for employment status, degree, job status and experience. However, female engineers are not found in management positions as often as their male colleagues, even after controlling for experience. This lower job status, in turn, affects the women's incomes. A reason for the lower status of female engineers is likely due to engineering being very male-dominated. No such difference in job status exists in the field of computer science, where the proportion of women is much higher.

The selective success of women in traditionally male dominated fields is identified as a paradox whose explanation will have implications for the issue of the under representation of women in science and engineering programs. Trends in degree attainment by sex science and engineering are examined in the context of degree attainment in all traditionally male dominated degree programs in order to generate empirically based hypotheses. Because research designs in use for quantitative data in sociology are much better designed to test hypotheses than to generate new ones, an important aspect of this study is its development of a new analytical strategy. In order to effectively explore the available data, the existing statistics for degree attainment in traditionally male dominated fields for both sexes over the 1962-1989 period are converted to graphical display and analysed visually. The organization of the graphical displays developed is consistent with basic aspects of the comparative, exploratory research strategy advocated by Glaser and Strauss and graphical display techniques of Tufte. Findings show that the largest gains in representation in traditionally male dominated disciplines have been in those where the associated professions or occupations are typically autonomous self-employed professions rather than positions in large organizations. These findings further suggest processes that may be contributing the continued under representation of women in the physical sciences and engineering.

Broadening participation in engineering has been a pressing focus of engineering education research for decades. Despite efforts to improve engineering access for historically underrepresented groups, progress has been slow. The National Academy of Engineering and other governmental and professional agencies have voiced the need to increase the presence of women in engineering as a national priority. Women have always been underrepresented in engineering spaces and are too often told either explicitly or through negative treatment that they do not belong in engineering. This messaging is a barrier to broadening engineering participation for women; when women do feel like they belong, conversely, they are more likely to enter and remain in engineering spaces. My study was designed to understand women's experiences of belonging at different organizational levels. I investigate women's perceptions, competencies, motivations, and opportunities for belonging both within their engineering programs/colleges and outside of engineering at their institutions. Using this multi-level approach, I identified connections between belonging components at each level and found that the source of women's belonging and engagement matters for their overall levels of belonging and intentions to persist in engineering. The results of this study revealed that women experience higher levels of belonging outside of engineering than within their engineering programs. However, belonging in engineering related to students' intentions to persist toward their engineering degrees, but belonging outside of engineering did not. I also found that different activities relate to women's belonging at each level, which could have implications for how we support students in finding belonging. My findings present an opportunity for educators to be intentional about how and where they help students cultivate belonging. If we can help women find greater belonging in their engineering programs/colleges, we may be able to influence the likelihood that they persist in their engineering program in a way that belonging initiatives outside of engineering may not. / Doctor of Philosophy / Broadening participation in engineering has been a pressing focus of engineering education research for decades. Despite efforts to improve engineering access for historically underrepresented groups, progress has been slow. The National Academy of Engineering and other governmental and professional agencies have voiced the need to increase the presence of women in engineering as a national priority. Women have always been underrepresented in engineering spaces and are too often told either explicitly or through negative treatment that they do not belong in engineering. This messaging is a barrier to broadening engineering participation for women; when women do feel like they belong, conversely, they are more likely to enter and remain in engineering spaces. My study was designed to understand women's experiences of belonging at different organizational levels. I investigate women's perceptions, competencies, motivations, and opportunities for belonging both within their engineering programs/colleges and outside of engineering at their institutions. Using this multi-level approach, I identified connections between belonging components at each level and found that the source of women's belonging and engagement matters for their overall levels of belonging and intentions to persist in engineering. The results of this study revealed that women experience higher levels of belonging outside of engineering than within their engineering programs. However, belonging in engineering related to students' intentions to persist toward their engineering degrees, but belonging outside of engineering did not. I also found that different activities relate to women's belonging at each level, which could have implications for how we support students in finding belonging. My findings present an opportunity for educators to be intentional about how and where they help students cultivate belonging. If we can help women find greater belonging in their engineering programs/colleges, we may be able to influence the likelihood that they persist in their engineering program in a way that belonging initiatives outside of engineering may not.

<p dir="ltr">For 20 years, engineering education scholars and policymakers have consistently witnessed a low number of women compared to men graduating in engineering in the US. However, in many other countries, like Tunisia, we see near gender parity in terms of the number of women and men graduating in engineering. These contrasting trends are observed beyond the sole case of Tunisia and the US. They are, in fact, part of a much larger phenomenon called the “Gender Equality Paradox” (GEP) in STEM. The GEP posits an inverse relationship between, on one hand, a country’s level of material affluence and gender egalitarianism and, on the other hand, the gender gap in STEM graduates. Despite the increased scholarly attention that the GEP has attracted since its inception, the GEP literature has consistently framed and examined this phenomenon from a Western perspective. That is, scholars ask, why do we see small numbers of women compared to men graduating in engineering despite the high level of material affluence and gender egalitarianism in Western countries?<br><br>Little, and largely marginal, space has been given to the voices of women engineers from non-Western countries. This dissertation addresses this gap by investigating Tunisian women’s motivations to become engineers. Specifically, this research examines the translocational experiences of Tunisian women immigrants in the US to understand the different gender orders at play in the US and Tunisia and how they produce different representations of women in engineering. Grounded in postcolonial feminism, this interpretivist qualitative study answered three research questions:</p><p dir="ltr">1. What individual-level factors do Tunisian women describe as motivating their participation and persistence in engineering education and practice?</p><p dir="ltr">2. What societal, cultural, and policy factors in Tunisia do participants describe as supportive of their participation and persistence in engineering education and practice? Which ones are not?</p><p dir="ltr">3. How does the translocational positionality of Tunisian women engineers in the US (re)shape their perception of engineering?</p><p><br></p><p dir="ltr">The findings indicate an interplay between individual agency, structural factors, and historical contingency in determining the participants’ pathway to engineering. The participants described having to respond to different codes of meaning associated to engineering that were signaled to them by their family, the Tunisian society, and the Tunisian state. The participants’ translocational experiences indicate that they had to navigate different types of masculinities in the US and Tunisia, thus producing different perceptions of what it means to be women engineers in both countries. The results of this study center non-Western voices of women engineers in the GEP scholarship, challenge colonial assumptions made by GEP scholars, and interrogate the colonial legacies of the Tunisia education system. They also showcase the limitations of categoricalism-based conceptions of the GEP based on summary indices of material affluence and gender egalitarianism.</p>

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This dissertation investigated attrition rates of engineers in the industry. It used historical data to examine trends of attrition based on gender and time. It found that both gender and time were statistically significant in predicting whether an engineer would be working in the industry or not. Males with an engineering degree were 5.2 times more likely to work in the engineering industry than females with an engineering degree. Additionally, as engineers progress through the profession, they tend to leave it altogether more often than staying in the profession for their entire careers. Pivotal points where engineers leave the industry include 7 years post-graduation and 30 years post-graduation. The second study investigated the attrition rates further by looking at engineering disciplines. Agricultural Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer/Systems Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Other Engineering experienced the same statistically significant predictors of gender and time on whether an engineer with a degree in these individual fields would be working within the engineering industry. The third study examined the reasons why engineers left the industry, using qualitative analysis of interview data. Individual interviews gave insight into why engineers left the industry and what would have helped them stay in it. Trends were identified based on gender and time in the industry. Males left the profession primarily due to the career category, which included pay, promotion, job satisfaction, and interest. Females left the profession primarily due to the work environment, including work culture, managers, coworkers, and flexibility. The categories that had the highest frequency across all interviews included work culture, interest, work life balance, and promotions.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Scientific research that focuses on South African females’ success in engineering is limited. The South African engineering workforce and universities have been encountering challenges in attracting and retaining as many females as possible in these fields. This research assignment seeks to advance the understanding of challenges and reasons that contribute to most female learners shying away from engineering studies at tertiary level. To achieve this, Grade 11 and Grade 12 Mathematics and Physical Science female learners from six different schools, which are in a single educational circuit, were observed and interviewed. Mathematics and Physical Science are the two subjects which are prerequisites for engineering studies at any South African higher education institution. For this reason the research focused on female learners who were studying both these subjects. This study also includes a literature review of factors affecting South African women engineers in the labour market. This includes the factors that females around the world consider before choosing a career and the reasons why females stay in their chosen careers. The findings highlight a number of variables that contribute to females’ underrepresentation in engineering. These variables include societal expectations, perceptions of females in careers that are historically male dominated, the quality of education that female learners receive at school, female learners’ performance in Mathematics and Physical Science, guardians’ support of careers chosen by female learners, learners’ knowledge of the various career streams, the use of home language in teaching subjects assessed in English, family responsibilities, and university admission requirements for engineering. Suggestions on how some of these challenges can be mitigated have been highlighted in this research assignment. The main points are:  The need for career guidance workshops and companies’ exhibitions to be taken to the students’ schools where attention can be given to the students of one school at a time and companies can facilitate discussions with learners about the types of work that their companies offer.  Encouraging and advocating for greater parental involvement in the students’ studies as this can reduce the number of students who do not study on a regular basis.  Offering of teaching employment to candidates who fully meet the requirements for the positions they are applying for especially for core subjects like English, Maths, and Science.  Adding engineering faculties to the two universities in the Limpopo Province and giving bursaries or financial aid to help school girls who want to study engineering at university  Teaching school girls time management skills from an early age so as to help them know how to balance the time they spend on each subject. Further details on how some of these suggestions can be achieved are discussed in the last chapter of this research report.

Faculty of Engineering. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-141)

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1999. / Bibliography: leaves 106-109.