M.A. / Women engineers operating in a male-dominated environment face many challenges and are critical to retain in South Africa’s developing economy. The main aim of this research study was to determine the strategies that women engineers use in negotiating their work identity. The strategies were identified by using the Conceptual Model of Engineers’ Identities as a framework to develop an understanding of women engineers’ identity work. A qualitative method was employed to gather the data for this study. The research design that determined how the data would be analysed was a qualitative survey. This study consisted of ten research participants working in different organisations situated in Gauteng and Pretoria, South Africa...

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.

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