Running Head: Lack of Women in Engineering

Lack of Women in Engineering

The University Of Texas at El Paso
Stephanie Carrera

LACK OF WOMEN IN MASCULINE FIELDS

Lack of women in men dominated work fields is something common. Throughout years
there has been a tradition set that only men belong in certain fields and women belong in other
fields such as nursing, teaching, and as secretaries. Throughout the years women and men have
been stereotyped and women have been seen inferior to men and have been assigned lower
positions than men. While reading some articles I was able to obtain different type of
information on why there are less women than men in Engineering. Throughout this research I
was able to find similarities and differences between these articles which I will be talking about.
While both Why Arent There More Women in Engineering: Can We Really Do
Anything? and Women, (Lack of) Interest and an Engineering Student Competition Team talk
about how women lack positions in engineering Why Arent There More Women in Engineering:
Can We Really Do Anything? Is more factual than the other article. Women, (Lack of) Interest
and an Engineering Student Competition Team actually gives stories on experiences that both
men and women have gone through. On the second article it gives both views on women and
men when they are asked to join teams to do group projects. However, both of these articles
agree than women are commonly stereotyped by men and feel pressured to work around men
who are constantly judging them. In these articles they both also agree that women dont really
know much about engineering and they dont know how engineers contribute to society
therefor engineering is not an option for many women when it comes to selecting a career.
As I was reading more into Women, (Lack of) Interest and an Engineering Student
Competition Team I found myself reading a more opinionated article on this topic. It talked about
needing self-efficiency and interest, along with outcome expectations and social influences,( ]
J. C Dalton and P. C. Crosby, Nov. 2010) and by this it meant that the person choosing this

major had to have interest in this activity, show confidence in their work and how it is

LACK OF WOMEN IN MASCULINE FIELDS

performed, and also expect a great outcome by their efforts. Basically mentioning that this
showed the difference between men and women and who would stick through this course when
put to a challenge and the self-efficiency needed for this. In addition both of these articles talk
about woman being involved by culture. When women were asked why they were interested in
engineering they answered that it was because they had family members who had the same
interest as them such as their grandparents, uncles, etc. When asked, the young woman
said her father was an engineer and also her uncle and grandfather had been
engineers( Brush, L.) In article Women, (Lack of) Interest and an Engineering Student

Competition Team it also mentions how gender role has to do a lot with how men and women are
expected to behave and how it shapes both educational and professional lives of each individual.
Just as the other article says A major factor in why there are so few women in computer science
is that the female students in high school and college not only lack confidence in math and
science, but when they compare (10) Which says that women are taught at a young age that
if you cannot do something you will not be competent against someone else. While mean are
always taught that you cannot lack confidence in math or science.
On the other hand article Why Arent There More Women in Engineering: Can We Really
Do Anything? The article mentions A second major theme in the review of literature on the
reasons for the lack of women in engineering is that womens self-efficacy for pursuing science
and engineering careers tends to be low as a result of lack of information to build self-efficacy
(Blaisdell, Stephanie, Dec, 1995.) this shows a major difference between both articles. While the
other talks about needing self-efficiency to be successful in this field this one talks about the lack
of self-efficiency by ones past in either their math or science classrooms that can separate how
successful men and women are in engineering. One major difference between these two articles is

LACK OF WOMEN IN MASCULINE FIELDS

that one is based on facts while the other is on a groups study that shows both mens and womens side of
the story when it comes to collaborating in groups.

While studying these two articles I learned that one reaches the topic in a more
opinionated way while the other gives facts and statistics on why there are less women in
engineering. Each of these articles approach the same topic a different way. One has both men
and women giving their actual side of their story on group projects they did. On the other hand
the other article gives facts and statistics. One thing both of these articles agree on it that most
part of it is stereotyping and women receiving lower positions because they are simply women.

References

LACK OF WOMEN IN MASCULINE FIELDS

[6.] Blaisdell, Stephanie, Factors in the Underrepresentation of Women in Science and Engineering: A
Reviewof the Literature, Women in Engineering Program Advocates Network, Working Paper 95-1,
December 1995
[10.] R.W. Lent, S. D. Brown and G. Hackett, Toward a unifying social cognitive
theory of career and academic interest, choice, and performance,
[Monograph]. J. of Vocational Behavior, Vol. 45, pp. 79122,1994.
[14.] Brush, L., Cognitive and Affective Determinants of Course Preferences and
Plans, in S.F. Chipman, L.R.
Brush & D.M. Wilson (Eds.) Women and Mathematics, Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates, pp.
123-150
http://www.computer.org/csdl/proceedings/fie/2013/9999/00/06684846.pdf
file:///C:/Users/Stephanieuno/Downloads/why-aren-t-there-more-women-inengineering-can-we-really-do-anything.pdf