78.5
Women Students in Canadian Engineering Faculties and Their Sub-Disciplines: Gender Inequalities, Inclusions and Exclusions - Empirical and Theoretical Considerations
Engineering remains one of the few undergraduate programs in Canadian (and American) universities in which women are a numerical minority (typically about 20% of the engineering enrolment), but their percentage in engineering sub-disciplines ranges from 10% or less to over 50%. On the one hand, there has been little empirical study of Canadian engineering students, while on the other American research has posited a number of explanations for continuing gender inequality in engineering, including the structural features of engineering programs, the lack of female role models within engineering, and the macho culture associated with engineering.
This paper draws on material from a multi-disciplinary study which uses a variety of methods to question both women and men - students, administrators and professors in faculties of engineering in three Canadian universities, in each of which a relatively high percent (about 30%) of the engineering undergraduates are women. Based on the Canadian empirical data, we explore various theoretical explanations, seeking answers to such questions as:
- Is gender equity a priority in the engineering programs of these universities? And if so, how is this manifested?
- Are some of the sub-disciplines in engineering more explicitly socially relevant than others and is social relevance more appealing to women than men (as has been suggested)?
- Do considerations of gender equity influence women’s choice of university, their decision to study engineering, their choice of sub-discipline within engineering?
- To what extent does a stereotyped macho culture persist in the classroom, in para-academic activities and in social activities within these engineering faculties? And what are the implications of the prevailing culture(s) in terms of gendered inclusions and exclusions?