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Hearing Student Voices:  CAEE APS gender findings

Below are discussion notes from the CAEE APS "Hearing Student Voices" workshop held at ASEE 2008 in Pittsburgh on June 24, 2008.  For more information about the workshop, please see the APS at WEPAN front page.  The ASEE workshop was an updated version of an earlier workshop held at WEPAN 2008.

Discussion notes

Discussion questions

• What implications do these findings have on efforts to promote the success of women in engineering?
  • Existing practices and policies that the findings support
  • Changes suggested by the findings
• What further research is needed to suppor or justify these efforts?

Discussion notes (in no particular order)

These are minimally edited transcriptions of notes taken by workshop attendees and submitted at the end of the session.

OPEN QUESTIONS to research:

• How do attitudes and perspectives vary with engineering subdiscipline (esp. those where women are better represented), gender, ethnicity?
• How do understanding of major and perspective change with time, maturity, socialization?
• What outcomes can we expect from direct vs. subtle instruction about gender issues/identity?
  • direct
    • increased retention/success by women 
    • student not as receptive to ongoing relationship
  • subtle
    • lower retention/success
    • student more receptive to ongoing relationship

APS FINDINGS:  gender gaps (confidence, preparation, etc.)

IMPLICATIONS on action:

• Need to have frank discussions about gender (in class), people [which people?] need to be challenged
• Need to show that we value gender diversity
• Need for a teaching unit to help instructors cover these topics

APS FINDING:  some women who stop noticing that they are in the minority in engineering

OPEN QUESTIONS to research: 

• Are there two types of women---those who truly cease to notice gender differences and those who put it out of their mind as a coping mechanism?  [...and if so, how would we distinguish between the two?]
• Might this indicate an observation made early on ("I'm the only female in the class.") actually not being a continuing alarm?
• While this might be true for some women, does it necessarily mean women's experiences in engineering are different?
• To what extent do women develop dual identities through extra-curricular activities or find balance through those activities?

APS FINDING:  women's lower confidence with problem-solving

OPEN QUESTION to research:  relationship with earlier experiences?

OPEN QUESTIONS to research:   

• majority/minority, spotlighting [See McLoughlin in JEE, 2005]
• impact of research process...whether APS participation leads students to reflect more on their experiences, as women and in general
• parallel studies in situtations where gender ratio is reversed, e.g., schools of education, communication)?
• effects of early exposure to engineering?
• other interpretations of "diversity"?

APS FINDING:  women more engaged in liberal arts courses

OPEN QUESTION to research:  Why?  What is it about those courses?

APS FINDING:  women less likely to practice engineering after earning degree

OPEN QUESTION to research:  What are they doing instead?

APS FINDING:  conceptions of engineering

OPEN QUESTION to research:  What are faculty doing or not doing that may lead to these conceptions?

OPEN QUESTION to research:  Why are women better represented in engineering in some other cultures (e.g., Puerto Rico)?

APS FINDING:  conceptions of engineering---women not perceiving that engineering offers them what they want

IMPLICATIONS on action:  more pre-college programs to broaden conceptions, "Here are all the things you can do as an engineer."

APS FINDING:  perception of difficulty of engineering curriculum, what it takes to do engineering

IMPLICATIONS on action:  guidance counselors, teachers, parents

APS FINDING:  attitude of some men about women who don't belong in engineering, etc.

OPEN QUESTIONS to research:

• Where do these attitudes come from?
• How prevalent are these attitudes, perceptions?
  • in academia
  • in industry, where students take part in internships, coops