Women in engineering education and occupation: An attitudinal study

Underrepresentation of women in engineering concerns a variety of organizations. Both governmental and private groups recommend changes in engineering work/study environments that will attract more women to the field. Some groups and universities have implemented programs designed to remedy the situation. Related literature indicates that women engineering students, faculty and practitioners confront unfavorable attitudes of male classmates, faculty and colleagues. Because these groups are likely to exert influence on women's academic and occupational choices, this study was designed to investigate their attitudes toward women engineering education and occupation (WEEO).;A five-point Likert scale instrument was developed and pilot tested on students, faculty and engineers. The 30 items of the instrument were divided into the following four subscales: (I) Women Engineering Students, (II) Women Engineering Faculty, (III) Women Engineers, and (IV) Planning to Attract More Women to Engineering.;A total of 770 participants were recruited from a large southern state with a diverse population. They consisted of 569 students, 174 engineers and related professionals and 27 college faculty.;Factor analysis was employed in the development of the instrument. Descriptive statistics and analysis of variance were used to analyze data. Results indicated that participants generally reported favorable attitudes toward WEEO (total scale) and all subscales. Women reported more favorable attitudes than did men with less variability in their responses. Engineering faculty expressed the most favorable attitudes with less variability than any other group.;The favorable attitudes reported in this study were inconsistent with findings from earlier research. This positive change can possibly be attributed to the effectiveness of the above mentioned efforts. Further research is needed to: (1) Investigate whether the stated positive attitudes are reflected in participants' behavior in their work/study environment. (2) Determine whether there are more women students and faculty in universities with programs to attract women to their engineering schools, and/or attitudes toward women in these programs are more favorable than those in schools without such programs. (3) Identify factors that influenced women engineers to enter the field. (4) Assess whether the number of women entering each engineering field meet the demands of the profession.