Gender issues in attracting students to science, technology and ...

Gender issues in attracting students to science, technology and engineering higher education A. Reis1 Researcher at Núcleo de Estatística e Prospectiva Instituto Superior Técnico Lisboa, Portugal [email protected] C. Patrocínio Coordinator of Núcleo de Estatística e Prospectiva Instituto Superior Técnico Lisboa, Portugal [email protected] P. Lourtie Professor Instituto Superior Técnico Lisboa, Portugal [email protected] Conference Topic: Gender and Diversity in Engineering Education Keywords: recruitment, gender, women in engineering, engineering education.

INTRODUCTION The attractiveness of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) has received much attention in recent years since, to remain competitive in the global economy and maintain the level of innovation, the education system must provide an ever expanding and highly talented pool of STEM professionals (see [1] and [2]). Therefore, recruiting students, especially women to STEM programmes is seen as a major problem in most developed countries [3], [4]. The ATTRACT research project “Enhance the Attractiveness of Studies in Science and Technology“, within the EU Lifelong Learning Programme, has emerged to meet these challenges and it aims at increasing the knowledge of different aspects of student recruitment to engineering and technology education and understanding how students’ retention in these areas can be improved (see [5] for detailed information about the project). The ATTRACT project has been conducted in four development workpackages (WP): the attractiveness of being an engineer (WP5), formal hinders for entering engineering education (WP6), attracting students to science, technology/engineering education (WP7) and student retention (WP8). As 1

Corresponding Author A. Reis, [email protected]

an institutional member of this research project, Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) carried out questionnaires addressed to secondary students and IST freshmen students in order to analyse the engineering perceptions. Although women represent the majority of students and graduates in almost all Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, the proportion of women in engineering is still lower than that of men [6]. In general, it is observed that STEM fields are more likely to be chosen by men, even though there are specific and more interdisciplinary areas that contradict this trend (e.g. chemistry and biology). This pattern is also observed across the teaching staff. Moreover, according to Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) [7], in recent years girls, in many countries, have surpassed boys in science proficiency. However, better performances in science among girls do not necessarily mean that girls wish to pursue all types of science-related careers. In fact, in every OECD country more girls than boys reported that they wished to pursue a career in health services, a science profession with a caring component, while only fewer than 5% expected to work in engineering and computing as adults, while 18% of boys expect to work in this field, [7]. Differences in young people’s study choice can be attributed to traditional perceptions of gender roles and identities as well as the wide acceptance of cultural values associated with particular fields of education [6]. Parents’ influence on children’s career paths is well known. For example, [8] reports that parents’ occupations influence their children’s’ career development. Also, according to [9], the different types of activities that children are exposed were found to affect their perception of careers and shape their future aspirations and interests. The main motivation behind students’ choice of an engineering programme are usually related with their perceived abilities in math, science and problem-solving, as well as the perception that engineering has easy access to the labour market and high salaries [10]. Engineering perceptions and the manner that they differ between female and male students have been widely documented through the literature (see for example [11]) since they have the power to attract or to repel students from STEM studies [12]. However, research rarely focuses on how students perceive engineering compared with other professions and how does it impact male and female perceptions. In light of the foregoing, it is important to understand how secondary and IST students perceive other professions in terms of: difficulty, effort required to undertake the programme, pay level and employers’ recognition, since the understanding of how genders diverge may shed some light on new approaches to attract students for STEM programmes, especially female students. 1. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY Secondary students data summarised in this paper results from a survey applied to seven secondary schools whose students are most likely to come to IST. Schools were chosen based on a convenience criterion (proximity and previous collaboration). This means that the collected data is not representative of the entire Portuguese population attending secondary school. However, this information will provide deeper insight into secondary female and male students’ motivations to follow to tertiary education and, in particular, an engineering programme. The overall test group consisted of 583 secondary students participants. In what concerns IST freshmen, the population at issue was the students from 2010/2011 and 2011/12 for the first time. This population, which totalled 2826 students, has been asked to complete an online survey and the response rate achieved 64% (1796 students). From Fig. 1 it can be seen that secondary students (Sec.S) are female (F) dominated, while IST is the opposite, male (M) students dominating in IST programmes, as well as for potential

engineering students (PES). As shown in Fig. 2, both engineering students, as well as potential engineering students, have studied science and technology in secondary school.

Fig. 1. Gender distribution.

Fig. 2. Area of studies distribution.

2. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION This section will present and discuss the main results obtained from the survey, namely how different parental background influences female and male choice, what differs in the main motivation for undertaking an engineering programme for female and male students and in what way gender perceptions about engineering differ from female to male students. 2.1.

Parental Background

Fig. 3. Students who have at least one of parent with a tertiary education qualification.

Fig. 4. Students who have at least one parent with one of the following occupations.

From Fig. 3 it can be seen that the percentage of students who have at least one parent with tertiary education is similar for both female and male students. Moreover, as detailed in Fig. 4 the most common professions among parents are engineering and teaching and typically PES females are much more likely to have at least one parent as an engineer. 2.2.

Motivation for undertaking an engineering programme

As shown in Fig. 5 female students attribute much more importance than male students to university information when deciding whether or not to undertake a university programme, as well as to students’ life. Moreover, female potential engineering students also attribute more

importance than male students to the fact that a university programme opens the access to a higher social level and secondary male students attribute more importance than girls to mathematics results.

Fig. 5. Factors that students consider important in their decision on attending a university programme.

From Fig. 6 it can be seen that female students tend to attribute much more importance to programme guides or other leaflets, as well as to the information released by the ministry of education than male students. Moreover, when questioned female secondary students (and also female PES) attributed a higher importance to in-school information dissemination, higher education fairs and also to secondary education teachers. It is also more important for female PES and IST students to look at advertisements and visit universities to decide the university programme.

Fig. 6. Information sources that students consider important to choose the programme/institution to attend.

Females tend to be more concerned about the consequences that may derive from their decision. Therefore, they look for more information, and dedicate more time to the decision process. Male, on the contrary, assign more importance to the analysis of the information required to carry out the decision, being more assertive and objective [13]. This might explain the differences founded between male and female choices. 2.3.

Engineering Perceptions

As it can be seen from Fig. 7 and Fig. 8, male and female students have different perceptions about the difficulty required to perform some professions, namely engineering, medicine and law. Typically female students in secondary education believe that to perform engineering duties is easier than male students, while the trend among IST students is the opposite, male students believe that it is easier to perform engineers duties.

Fig. 7. Occupation duties difficulty perceived by male students.

Fig. 8. Occupation duties difficulty perceived by female students.

From Fig. 9 and Fig. 10 it is evident that there are different perceptions about the effort required undertaking university programmes. Female secondary students expect a higher level effort to take a law programme. In what concerns engineering, male secondary students

believe that to undertake this programme will require more effort than female students, while IST male students believe that it is easier than female students do.

Fig. 9. Effort perceived by male students to undertake a programme.

Fig. 10. Effort perceived by female students to undertake a programme.

As shown in Fig. 11 and Fig. 12 it can be seen that for secondary students there is no significant differences between male and female students. However, for IST freshmen, male and female students seem to have very different opinions about engineering, medicine and law pay level. Male students are much more optimists about the pay level of those professions than female students. For engineering this difference reaches 50%. Notice also, that IST female students are even more pessimistic than secondary female students.

Fig. 11. Occupations perceived by male students as very compensatory.

Fig. 12. Occupations perceived by female students as very compensatory.

From Fig. 13 and Fig. 14 it can be seen that in general male students are more confident about employers’ recognition and the profession in which this difference is larger is engineering.

Fig. 13. Occupations perceived by male students as very recognized by employers.

Fig. 14. Occupations perceived by female students as very recognized by employers.

According to [14], female students believe that they have to prove their skills to be approved, more strongly than men. This might be the reason why female students believe that engineering is neither a very well-paid profession and nor a recognized occupation among employers. Therefore, this may lead to hesitate to choose it as a career. Hence, the path to balance the gender differences in engineering education might pass through clarifying these issues for young female students. Engineering is in general a well-paid profession with a high recognition by employers [1].

Fig. 15. Students’ perception about engineers’ importance to the country development.

Fig. 16. Engineering easiness to access the labour market.

As detailed in Fig. 15, most students consider engineers very important (VI) or important (I) to the country development, with few considering them of little importance (LI) or unimportant (U) to the country development. However, female secondary students attribute them a lower level of importance when compared with their male counterparts. From Fig. 16 it can be seen that more than half of the inquired students believe that engineering has an easy access to the labour market. It is curious to notice that even though male and female perceptions do not differ significantly, female students are more pessimistic than male students about the easiness of getting a job. 3. CONCLUSION It can be concluded that the percentage of students who have at least one of the parents with tertiary background is very similar for both genders. Moreover, most students have at least one of parents with an engineering background or a teaching background and typically PES females are much more likely to have at least one of the parents as an engineer.

Female students tend to attribute more importance than male students to university information, as well as to students’ life when deciding whether or not they are going to undertake a university programme. Moreover, female PES also attribute more importance than male students to the fact that a university programme give access to a higher social level and while secondary male students attribute more importance to mathematics results. Again, female students tend to attribute much more importance to programme guides or other leaflets, as well as to the information released by the ministry of education than male students. And, when questioned, female secondary students (and also female PES) attribute a higher importance to information disseminated in school, in higher education fairs or by secondary teachers. It is also more important for female PES and IST students the advertisements and visits to universities in order to decide the university programme. Male and female students have different perceptions about the difficulty required to perform some professions, namely: engineering, medicine, law. Typically, female students in secondary education believe that it is easier to perform engineering duties, while the trend among IST students is the opposite, the male students believing that it is easier to perform engineers’ duties. Regarding the effort required to undertake a university programme, male and female students do not seem to agree, especially in what concerns law. Female secondary students expect more effort to take a law programme than the male ones. In what concerns engineering, male secondary students believe that undertaking this programme will require more effort than female students, while IST males believe that it is easier than females do. Female students believe that engineering is neither a very well-paid profession and nor a much recognized occupation among employers and, therefore, they hesitate to choose it as a career. Hence, the path to balance the gender differences in engineering education might pass through clarifying these issues for young female students. Engineering is in general a wellpaid with a high recognition by employers. Both genders consider engineers important for the country development and typically there is no much difference between their perceptions about this issue, even though secondary female students do not attribute so much importance to them. Therefore, as expected, more than half the students believe that engineering has an easy access to the labour market. It is curious to notice that even though male and female perceptions do not differ significantly, female students are more pessimistic about the easiness of getting a job.

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