Part: 3

CASE 28: Where Are the Women?

Introduction:

Science or engineering is neither a boy's nor a girl's pastime, and it should not be considered

such. It's a game for everyone. It has the entirety to do with where we're and in which we are

going. Nichols. Because of the superiority of male engineers, there may be an enormous notion

that engineering is a male-ruled profession. Culture, patriarchy, sexism, religion, and poisonous

masculinity exacerbated the shortage of ladies in engineering. According to the Oxford English

Dictionary, engineering is a department of technological know-how and era; this is worried about

the design, development, and use of engines, machines, and structures, amongst different things.

For various reasons, engineering is a discipline that men in today's society overwhelmingly

dominate.

Engineers are often thought of as guys wearing glasses without mentioning a female engineer in

the conversation. While there have been several studies on the skills that prevent women from

pursuing engineering as a career, there is no proof that women are incapable of or do not possess

the ability necessary to be a productive engineers. As a result, it is assumed and stereotyped that

women do not include the talents required to hold an engineering position. Following the case

studies about U.S findings and the formation of assumptions, what makes a sound engineer

arises. Many people have the same response to the question, yet there isn't a single ability that a

woman doesn't have. Having a racially and culturally divided gender in South Africa worsens the

situation for women, leading to race-based gaps in economic opportunities. Employment and

promotion opportunities for white women and black women are opposed to race and ethnicity.

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Women encounter continuous gender obstacles in their chosen professions, which need unique

strategies for coping with them. A significant challenge they will have to overcome is gender

role stereotyping, which maintains that particular behaviours and skills are more frequent in one

gender than the other. (Fernandez, Aug 15, 2019,)

To deeply understand where the women in engineering school use the case study about the

untied state recent research data. According to the National Science Foundation, despite a

tremendous increase over the previous few decades, just around 20 per cent of American

students are enrolled in engineering programs. Men and women are equally represented in

chemical engineering departments, but women account for just 13 per cent of mechanical and

electrical engineering undergraduate students, respectively. Only one female student receives a

PhD in engineering out of every eighteen PhDs awarded; Female professors substantially under-

represent engineering universities. According to the National Science Foundation, the wide

variety of first-12 months university college students who desire to look at technological know-

how or engineering has expanded from eight according to cent in 2010 to kind of forty-five in

2015. That is an enormous growth from the preceding 12 months (NSF). Therefore, both the

proportion of lady's incomes stages in those fields has remained exceptionally solid or has

reduced; for example, the price of ladies' incomes undergraduate diploma certificate final touch

in engineering has expanded from 18. four according to cent in 2010 to 2021. according to pre

cent in 2015, the proportion of ladies making undergraduate diploma certificate final touch in

bodily sciences has reduced from 40—nine in 2010 to 38.7 in 2015.

Women are underrepresented at all levels of academia, including the highest levels of leadership;

Women make up less than five per cent of full-time academics, according to the National Center

for Education Statistics. "Women have 57 percent of all bachelor's degrees in the United States,

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55 percent of all PhDs in social sciences, at least 50 percent of students in medical and law

schools, and 28 percent of full professors in the social sciences; our society uses different myths

regarded women in this field". (Smith-Barrow, Dec. 1, 2015)

In the engineering sector, it's past time to stop the salary inequality that now exists. We must

eliminate patriarchy, gender stereotypes, and other kinds of discrimination against women and

girls of all sexes. Young women's pursuit of STEM fields, especially engineering, should be

promoted in several ways. It will also examine how enthusiastic and informed high school girls

are about engineering occupations, what motivates and deters them from pursuing careers in the

field, and what messaging could encourage more young women to seek employment in the area.

It also tries to improve engineering's public image by providing a confluence of technical ideas

to the paper's potentially large audience. The research looked at how high school engineering

education and awareness of engineering employment influence young women's choice to pursue

engineering as a profession. The study is critical for better knowledge of the problem and

developing strategies to increase the number of women in engineering. (Diana Starovoytova

Madara, 2016)

Other choices include billboards and social media advertising displaying women working on

construction sites dressed in religious gear of their choice. Women shy away from engineering

for several reasons: Engineers don't have as many female role models as a business, medicine, or

law. Female university engineering professors accounted for 5.5% of all academics in 1995.

Streaming leads female students to drop out of high school math and science programs because

of a lack of female role models in engineers competition. Systemic barriers to gender identity

expression include peer pressure and media depictions. Engineering is difficult. Women choose

the more straightforward option because they think they are bad at arithmetic. Some have

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suggested that women lack the self-confidence required to be engineers, while others have

claimed that women are more prone to stereotype risk and need more social coping techniques.

Women engineers are more prone to contemplate resigning if they believe their job and work

environment aren't rewarding. There are many reasons why women abandon science, and many

of them revolve around the desire to rectify some aspects of girls and women's personalities.

According to her, the workforce has to be more diverse, and she emphasized the need of building

an equitable workplace that supports original design ideas from a variety of perspectives.

Blickenstaff (2005) focused on the need to enhance women's retention in science, but her

arguments are also applicable to engineering. (Nadya A. Fouad, 30 June 2017)Consequently,

engineering is seen as a solitary activity dominated by machines. Engineering employment is

plentiful, but they are underrepresented in high school curricula and career counselling. A lack of

access to technical information outside of school particularly impacts women.

Conclusion:

According to statistics compiled by the Society of Women Engineers, 30 per cent of women who

have left the engineering sector believe that the "organizational climate influenced their

decision." Only 30 per cent of women who get bachelor's degrees in engineering work in the

industry for at least 20 years after graduation. As a consequence of social and cultural gender

roles, people have attributes, behaviours, interests, abilities, and activities that are either

masculine or female. I think that acknowledging that these characteristics exist in both males and

females and that they may be used in various situations would aid in the dismantling of social

stereotypes and conventional gender roles. In recent years, feminists worldwide have expressed

concern about the shortage of female participation in engineering degrees. Previous research has

looked at a variety of historical origins for this phenomenon. History may be summarised in the

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following way for many western countries: Feminist views that place technology and

engineering far from women due to their improper gender roles are prevalent. Discrimination

based on gender in the job market categorizes engineering as a male-dominated profession.

Engineering schools have traditionally depended on lecturers to impart knowledge, which

focuses on natural science and hard-core technical talents while ignoring the concerns and

experiences of women in the field. When it comes to the engineering profession, removing

restricting stereotypes in the workplace may make it feasible for all people, male and female, to

make positive contributions to their communities, their workplaces, and the lives of others.

Works Cited

Diana Starovoytova Madara, S. N. (2016). Perceptions of Female High School Students on Engineering.
Journal of Education and Practice , Vol.7, No.25.

Fernandez, M. (Aug 15, 2019,). America's Top STEM Schools For Women. Retrieved from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/madisonfernandez/2019/08/15/americas-top-stem-schools-for-women

Nadya A. Fouad, W.-H. C. (30 June 2017). Women's Reasons for Leaving the Engineering Field.

Smith-Barrow, D. (Dec. 1, 2015). Graduate Engineering Programs With the Most Women. Retrieved
from https://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/slideshows/10-
graduate-engineering-programs-with-the-most-women