Gender and Engineering: Alternative Styles?

Anne van Beers and Monique Frize

World Congress on Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering *Nice'97.

Introduction The low representation of women in the profession can be explained by several factors: societal portrayal of gender roles on the media, by peers, some teachers, parents, and guidance counsellors; peer pressure and the perception that 'brains and femininity' are incompatible; the culture and environment of engineering; the low number of role models available to inspire young women about these fields. Until recently, it was not obvious that adding more women to the field would add values and perspectives which were thus far not present in the profession.

Methods Van Beers (1996) interviewed forty engineers (20 women and 20 men) in the Vancouver area (Canada) with regards to their work experiences. Another major study (Sonnert and Holton, 1996) interviewed a large number of recipients of prestigious fellowships (in science and engineering) to assess career success of men and women.

Results In Van Beers' study, most participants thought the presence of women would change the structure of the engineering work environment, the culture of engineering, and the practise of engineering. Women were perceived to have a more contextual approach, to have better communication and interaction skills, and to prefer a more consensual working relationship over hierarchal structures. A quarter of these engineers also believed that differences in style may also affect the content of engineering. Most participants thought the structures of opportunity to be gendered and women whose style differed from men felt that this slowed their progress. In the US study, men received faculty positions at one level higher than women (except in the field of biology); men published slightly more (2.4 papers per year vs 1.8), but the average citation per paper far far more frequent for women than men (24 vs 14). Several subjects also believed that the choice of research topics, and the manner in which the research was approached would differ by gender.

Conclusion These studies show that the culture of engineering is still predominantly masculine, and it is often a delicate balancing act for women working in this field to maintain their femininity while being seen as excellent engineers. These studies offer some support for the idea that women will bring new values and perspectives, if there are enough women to insure a voice and if women are allowed to be themselves, that is valued for the feminine contributions they make, instead of being marginalised because of them.

References Van Beers, A. (1996) "Gender and Engineering: Alternative Styles of Engineering". M.A. thesis, U.B.C.

Sonnert G. and Holton, G. (1996) "The career patterns of men and women scientists". American Scientist Jan-Feb.