The effect of World War II on women in engineering
Autor/in:
Barker, Anne M.
Quelle: Journal of women and minorities in science and engineering, Vol. 9 (2003) No. 3-4
Inhalt: "The field of engineering has been one of the most difficult for women to enter. Even
with an increase in the proportion of women in the engineering workforce from 0.3%
before the 1970s to 9.5% in 1999, women are still seriously underrepresented. This
article examines the history of women in engineering in the United States during World
War II. Women were actively recruited as engineering aides by the federal government,
which saw them as a temporary substitute for men who were in the military. Yet this
crisis did not break down the barriers to and prejudices against women in engineering,
nor did it give them a real opportunity to become professional engineers equal to
men. After the war, calls for a return to normalcy were used to reestablish social
norms, which kept women at home and reserved desirable places in the workforce, including
in engineering, for men." (author's abstract)|
CEWS Kategorie:Naturwissenschaft und Technik, Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Image problems deplete the number of women in academic applicant pools
Autor/in:
Sears, Anna L.W.
Quelle: Journal of women and minorities in science and engineering, Vol. 9 (2003) No. 2, S. 169-181
Inhalt: "Despite near numeric parity in graduate schools, women and men in science and mathematics may not perceive the same opportunities for career success. Instead, female doctoral students' career ambitions may often be influenced by perceptions of irreconcilable conflicts between personal and academic goals. This article reports the results of a career goals survey of math and science doctoral students at the University of California, Davis. Fewer women than men began their doctoral programs seeking academic research careers. Of those who initially favored academic research, twice as many women as men downgraded these ambitions during graduate school. Women were more likely to feel geographically constrained by family ties and to express concern about balancing work and family, long work hours, and tenure clock inflexibility. These results partially explain why the percentage of women in academic applicant pools is often well below the number of Ph.D. recipients. The current barriers to gender equity thus cannot be completely ameliorated by increasing the number of women in the pipeline or by altered hiring practices, but changes must be undertaken to make academic research careers more flexible, family friendly, and attractive to women." (author's abstract)
CEWS Kategorie:Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Naturwissenschaft und Technik
Dokumenttyp:Zeitschriftenaufsatz
Using ICT to improve the gender balance in engineering education
Autor/in:
Alha, Katarina; Gibson, Ivan S.
Quelle: European journal of engineering education : official journal of SEFI - European Society for Engineering Education, ESEE, Vol. 28 (2003) No. 2, S. 215-224
Inhalt: "This paper summarizes the activities, contents and overall outcomes of an international seminar organized jointly by two working groups of SEFI: the Working Group on Women in Engineering and the Working Group on Information and Communication Technologies. The seminar theme was 'Improving the gender balance in engineering education using ICT methods and contents' and was hosted by Oulu Polytechnic, Finland, 16-17 May 2002. In regard to ICT methods and contents, it is clear that the trend away from traditional teaching methods and a concentration on narrow technical contents is being replaced by a more holistic pedagogy that involves extensive use of ICT to provide both content and context of the material being learned by the student. The intrinsic advantages of ICT-based teaching are that it permits comprehensive use of resource-based learning, provides flexibility in learning and facilitates wide support for individual communication and networking. These features are particularly attractive to women." (author's abstract)
Quelle: Journal of women and minorities in science and engineering, Vol. 9 (2003) No. 1, S. 89-102
Inhalt: "Many different programs have been designed to increase girls' interest in and exposure to science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (SMET). Two of these programs are discussed and contrasted in the dimensions of length, level of science content, pedagogical approach, degree of self- vs. parent-selected participants, and amount of communitybuilding content. Two different evaluation tools were used. For one program, a modified version of the University of Pittsburgh's undergraduate engineering attitude assessment survey was used. Program participants' responses were compared to those from a fifth grade, mixed-sex science class. The only gender difference found was in the area of parental encouragement. The girls in the special class were more encouraged to participate in SMET areas. For the second program, a new age-appropriate tool developed specifically for these types of programs was used, and the tool itself was evaluated. The results indicate that the new tool has construct validity. On the basis of these preliminary results, a long-term plan for the continued development of the assessment tool is outlined." (author's abstract)