i Male and female electronics enaineers and @. electronic engineering: attitudes and influences by D. F. Sewell and S. H. Pulko This study reports on attitudes, backgrounds and perceived sources ofinjluence ofapplicant and professional engineers with r.fP/ence to electronic engineeting. In general, both groups held positive attitudes and regarded electronic engineering as a varied, stimulating, creative and intellectually challenging profession. The study also investigated the backgrounds of engineers and revealed signijcantgender dgerences. Women engineers were more likely to have attended a single sex school and to report af.mily stntcture which contained another engineer: In addition, perceived sources ofinzuence on the decision to become an engineer were dgerentfor men and women. These results are discussed in terms ofsome oftheir potential implicatiorrsfor remitment into electronic engineering. Introduction n recent years, there has been a growing concern in the UK over recruitment into the engineering sciences, with a number of initiatives (e.g. WISE) I designed to raise the numbers entering the profession. Despite an overall increase in the number of young people entering higher education, concern has been expressed that recruitment remains relatively low into disciplines such as electronic engineering, a problem amplified by the under-representation and recruitment of young women into the subject. There are doubtless many reasons why this might be the case. For example, electronic engineering may have a perceived low status in the public eye, or there may be failure to promote the potential attractions of engineering at school. An additional factor concerns potential gender stereotyping-of the ducipline and of the subjects whch would enable entry to relevant I courses in higher education, plus stereotyping potentially present in the home, in school and in the media whch may act to promote a particular view of science and engineering. Whatever the reasons, it is the case that there is a grossly uneven recruitment of males and females into electronic engneering, a fact confirmed by a recent report of Coles' who indlcates that Australian adolescents hold popular misconceptions about the nature of engineering. Coles further indlcates that a major barrier to increasing participation in engineering (particularly amongstwomen, the focus of his paper) is attitudinal, and he presents data-based on 35 women students-on some of the influences in choosing engineering. A recent paper addressed these issues by examining the attitudes held by over 600 young people towards electronic engineering as a subject of study2. In comparison with two other disciplines (psychology and English), electronic engineering was perceived as more difficult, boring and male-dominated. In general, young people appeared to hold negative views towards electronic engineering, thereby making it less likely that they would choose it as a possible career option. Such an option was held irrespective ofwhether young people were or were not studying subjects which would give entry to electronic engineering courses. In contrast, the authoe also reported that engineers themselves held generally positive attitudes towards their subject, describing it as an exciting and stimulatingprofession. ENGINEERING SCIENCE AND EDUCATION JOURNAL JUNE 1995 104
Transcript
i
Male and female electronics enaineers and @. electronic engineering:
attitudes and influences
by D. F. Sewell and S. H. Pulko
This study reports on attitudes, backgrounds and perceived sources ofinjluence ofapplicant and professional engineers with r.fP/ence to electronic engineeting. In general, both groups held positive attitudes and regarded
electronic engineering as a varied, stimulating, creative and intellectually challenging profession. The study also investigated the backgrounds o f engineers and revealed signijcant gender dgerences. Women engineers were more likely to have attended a single sex school and to report af.mily stntcture which contained another engineer: In
addition, perceived sources ofinzuence on the decision to become an engineer were dgerentfor men and women. These results are discussed in terms ofsome oftheir potential implicatiorrsfor remitment into electronic
engineering.
Introduction
n recent years, there has been a growing concern in the UK over recruitment into the engineering sciences, with a number of initiatives (e.g. WISE) I designed to raise the numbers entering the
profession. Despite an overall increase in the number of young people entering higher education, concern has been expressed that recruitment remains relatively low into disciplines such as electronic engineering, a problem amplified by the under-representation and recruitment of young women into the subject. There are doubtless many reasons why this might be the case. For example, electronic engineering may have a perceived low status in the public eye, or there may be failure to promote the potential attractions of engineering at school. An additional factor concerns potential gender stereotyping-of the ducipline and of the subjects whch would enable entry to relevant
I courses in higher education, plus stereotyping potentially present in the home, in school and in the media whch may act to promote a particular view of science and engineering.
Whatever the reasons, it is the case that there is a grossly uneven recruitment of males and females into
electronic engneering, a fact confirmed by a recent report of Coles' who indlcates that Australian adolescents hold popular misconceptions about the nature of engineering. Coles further indlcates that a major barrier to increasing participation in engineering (particularly amongst women, the focus of his paper) is attitudinal, and he presents data-based on 35 women students-on some of the influences in choosing engineering.
A recent paper addressed these issues by examining the attitudes held by over 600 young people towards electronic engineering as a subject of study2. In comparison with two other disciplines (psychology and English), electronic engineering was perceived as more difficult, boring and male-dominated. In general, young people appeared to hold negative views towards electronic engineering, thereby making it less likely that they would choose it as a possible career option. Such an option was held irrespective ofwhether young people were or were not studying subjects which would give entry to electronic engineering courses. In contrast, the authoe also reported that engineers themselves held generally positive attitudes towards their subject, describing it as an exciting and stimulating profession.
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Decisions about career options are influenced by a complex set of factors. Inevitably, subject choice and expertise play an important role, but additional influences relate to factors which lead to indwiduals developing expertise withm particular subject areas. Such intluences can include the support, or otherwise, of teachers for particular subjects, together with parental encouragement/discouragement and early experiences and influences w h c h might lead to young people developing those slulls and interests which would tend to lead them into a particular set of subject options.
Wittun contemporary psychology Ajzen3 has developed a theoretical paradgm which suggests that behaviour is the result of a complex interplay of factors, involving attitude formation, influence of important external sources (parents, teachers, peers, meha) and perceived ability. These are assumed to interact in such a way as to influence behavioural choices. Thus, an
point scale the degree to which they agreed with the descriptor-a ‘1’ signified ‘strongly disagree’ and a ‘5’ inchcated ‘strongly agree’. The descriptors selected were: challeuging, juancially reiuurdirig, glamoroirs, dqerous, quiet, comperitive, sutigyiy, excitity, obsessive, mundane, traditional, - f r r r r , jrtancially secure, stimulating, iflfluential, clean, chance to mix with other engineers, tedioirs, respectable, exhausting, opporturiities.for travel, varied w r k , stresqul, prestigiouj, creative, ltiork in LI comfortable environment, respected, intellectually demading, Contact iiitlr otherprofersiows, fashiurrah/e.
Participants: Two groups of subjects responded to the questionnaire on a voluntary basis:
(a) sixth form applicants to electronic engineering courses in higher education;
(h) professional engineers; these were selected from the 1EE Year Book and List of Members (1989-
inmidual who has 90). Selection was based on experienced (hrn Table 1: Contingency table showing the numbers of identieing \vonlen mtm-
male and female engineers attending either single- hers and age-matching f d y , sex or co-educational schools concerning an interest males (based on original related to engineering, Single-sex school Co-educational Totals sear ofmembership), together with an ability in Males 17 45 62 relevant subject areas (also Females 18 14 32 Procedure: The question- supported by influential Totals 35 59 94 naire was mailed to others, e.g. f a d % ueers. approximately 400 engin-
teachers
I I . . teachers, media) is more likely to develop positive attitudes towards the discipline and to consider it as a potential career option. Although this represents an oversimplhcation of this particular approach, it does represent a usefd way of conceptuahsing influences on behaviour by categorising them into different broad variables.
In general, there appear to have been relatively few attempts to assess the attitudes towards electronic engineering of young people and professional engineers. The previous paper by the authors represented a step in this drection by focusing on the attitudes held by young people towards electronic engineering, together with p r e h i n a r y data gathered fbm applicants and professional engineers. The present paper develops h s approach by considering adhtional data regarding the attitudes of both professional and applicant engineers, together with data on p o t e n t d sources of influence, e.g. type of schooling, family background and perceived influences.
Survey detail
Questionnaire: A questionnaire was devised, consisting of two sections. Section A requested information on gender, age band, type of school attended, f d y structure, whether there was another engineer in the f d y , and perceived major influences on the respondent’s decision to become an electronics engineer. Section B consisted of30 descriptors selected by professional engineers as appropriate to their subject. Respondents were required to indicate on a 5-
eers with an explanatory letter and prepaid return envelope. The questionnaire was also distributed to 6th form students attending careers fairs. This distribution procedure resulted in completed questionnaires being received from 100 6th-form applicants (93 males and 7 females) and 139 professional engineers (1 13 men and 36 women) in the age range 20 to 55+.
Results
Section A For the purposes of the analysis of responses to this
section, respondents aged over 55 were excluded. This was considered advisable as there were very few women respondents in this category. In addition, examination of the returned questionnaires indicated that many of the respondents in this age band considered their d t a r y experience to have been a major factor in their decision to become an engineer. It was felt that such an influence was probsbly not appropriate for those aged less than 55. Exclusion of subjects aged 55+ left 62 male and 32 female replies.
q p e ofsecondary school mended: O f particular interest was the question of whether there was a tendency for women engineers to have attended single-sex schools. Examination of the data indicated that 18 out of 32 women engineers had attended a single-sex school in comparison with 17 out of 62 men. These data can be arranged into a contingency table, as shown in Table 1.
Data of this type, in which subjects are allocated to categories, are best analysed by means ofthe chi-square test4. As subjects cannot be allocated to more than one
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category, the chi-square test is appropriate for making predictions about how many dderent subjects are expected to fall into each category on the assumption that there are no differences between the expected numbers. What the chi-square test does is to compare expected frequencies against observed kequencies to assess whether any differences are due to chance or whether there is little probability @) that the dlfferences have occurred due to chance. The conventional minimum level for accepting statistical significance is a probability of chance occurrence of less than 5% (p<0.05). The larger the d u e ofchi-square the greater the differences between the observed and expected frequencies and the lower the probability of observing such results by chance alone. For example, probability values of p<0.01 or p<0.001 would suggest that it is very unlikely that obtained dlfferences in fkquency had occurred by chance.
A further consideration concerns the term ‘degrees of freedom’ (4). This is best explained by an example. If faced with the problem of how to arrange five people argund a table, once four have taken their place there is no ‘freedom’ about where the fifih person can sit- it is determined by where the other four have placed themselves. In the chi-square statistic, dfis always given by d f = (R-l)(C-1) where R refers to the number of rows and C to the number of columns. In the data to be analysed here, there are two rows and two columns, hence df= 1. This comes from the fact that, given only one entry, and the row and column totals, the rest of the entries are completely determined.
Analysis by means of chi-square using the statistical analysis package CSS:Statistica5 revealed this to be a Kighly significant statistical difference (chi-square = 7.51, df= l,p<O.Ol). Whenthedatahomthe6thform applicants were included (1 1 out of 93 males and 4 out of 7 females having attended a single-sex school), the difference attained a greater level of statistical significance (chi-square = 23.94, df= 1, p<O.0001). It seems safe to conclude that there is a clear trend for women engineers to have attended a single-sex school.
Presence of another enginew in the immediate famil8 i.e. fathec mother, sibling: Examination of the data for professional engineers showed that 15 out of 32 women and 18 out of 62 men reported another engineer in the immediate f ady . Although suggestive ofa trend, ths did not reach statistical significance (ch- square = 2.94, df= 1, p = 0.08). However, when the data from 6th form applicants were included (18 out of 93 males and 3 out of 7 females), then chi-square reached statistical significance (chi-square = 8.15, df= 1, p<0.01), suggesting that women engineers are more likely than men engineers to have another engineer in their immediate f d y . In total, 54 respondents (out of 194) indicated the presence of another engineer in the family. This broke down as follows: father = 32; brother = 21; sister = 1.
Family position and structure: The data gathered enabled investigation of f a d y size, presence of siblings and birth order. The data were analysed for birth order
effects, presence of male/female sibhgs, and family size. There were no statistically sigdcant Merences between the sexes nor between professional and applicant engineers. In other words, there was no evidence, for example. that women engineers tended to be only ones or first born, nor that they grew up in a f a d y structure with a sigfuficant number of male siblings.
lnfltlences on decision to become an esgineer: Respondents were requested to summarise the most sigdicant influences on their decision to become an engineer. Analysis of the responses indicated that the perceived major intluences for males and females fell into the following broad categories (the figures in parentheses indcate the percentage of occasions on which a particular influence was reported by men (m) and women (w), respectively): interestlhobby (m = 44%. w = 10%); parental and/or school d u e n c e (m = 27%, w = 27%); subject expertise (m = 11%, w = 24%); job/career prospects (m = 11%, w = 15%); and desire to do something practical or relevant (m = 6%, w = 24%). Analysis ofthe raw data on whch these percentages are based revealed a sigdcant chi- squarevalue (chisquare = 18.65, df= 4,p<0.001). Ths was mainly due to more males and fewer females indicating interest/hobby than predlcted by chance, and more femaledfewer males reporting a desire to do somethng practical/relevant than expected by chance alone.
Consideration of the influences reported by 6th form male applicants (there were too few female applicants for formal analysis (N = 7)), confirmed that interest/hobby was a major factor (mentioned on 54% of occasions). This dominated in comparison with other perceived influences: subject expertise (18%),job prospects (14%), parental/school influences (ll%), and desire to do something practical (3%).
These data suggest that there are different sources of influence for males and females, with males being more iduenced by their experience with a hobby and/or interest, but females appearing to be more influenced by a desire to do somedung practical or relevant, as well as by subject expertise.
Summary ofgender dijiences: The data obtained from t h section ofthe questionnaire indicated the existence of significant gender differences. It appears that female engineers are more likely than male engineers to have attended a single-sex school and that female engmeers are also more likely than males to have another engineer in their immedlate famdy In addition, the perceived influences on the decision to pursue a career in engineering show a gender diflerence, with males being particularly duenced by a relevant interest or hobby but females appearing to be more influenced by parental/school influences, subject expertise and a desire to do something practical. Females rarely reported an influence of a hobby or interest.
Section B: subject desniptors The data from all participants (N = 249) were
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included in these analyses. Responses to the descriptors were initially analysed by identifying those descriptors which received average scores of either equal to or less than 2 (towards the ‘dlsagree’ end of the scale) or equal to or more than 4 (indicating moderate to s m n g agreement with the descriptor). Descriptors which generated moderate to strong agreement in both 6th form applicants and professional engineers were: ‘challenging’, ‘satisfymg’, ‘stimulating’, ‘creative’ and ‘intellectually demandmg’. Descriptors receiving mean scores of less than 2 (dsagree) by both professional engineers and 6th form applicants were ‘dangerous’ and ‘mundane’. The mean values for each descriptor for the two groups are presented in Table 2.
Respondents’ scores on each ofthe descriptors were further analysed by means of repeated analyses of variance, with the criterion level for statistical significance set at p<O.Ol.
Table 2: Mean responses of professional engineers and 6th form applicants to 30 subject descriptors. Rating scale: 1 to 5, where 1 = ‘strongly disagree’ and 5 = ‘strongly agree’ Descriptor Applicants Engineers
(n = 149) (n = 100)
challenging financially rewarding glamorous dangerous quiet competitive satisfying exciting obsessive mundane traditional fun financially secure stimulating influential clean chance to mix with
other engineers tedious respectable exhausting opportunities for travel varied work stressful prestigious creative work in a comfortable
respected intellectually demanding contact with other
6thform upplicurits and profissional engineers: 6th form applicants regarded electronic engineering as more financially rewardmg and financially secure than did professional engineers. They also perceived the subject as more competitive, exciting, respectable. prestigious, respected and fashonable. It should be noted, however, that, in general, 6th form applicants tended to gwe higher ratings than professional engineers and that these results, although statistically significant, were small in terms of mean dfierences (see Table 2) and should be treated with caution. Although there were differences in the mean values for the terms ‘respectable’, ‘prestigious’, ‘respected’ and ‘fashionable’ the mean values for all subjects fell in the mid-range of the scale, i.e. there was not a tendency for 6th form students to rate electronic engineering as a particularly high status profession.
Gender d@erenres: Among the professional engineers, there were 36 women and 113 male respondents. There were few statistically significant gender hfferences. Males regarded electronic engineering as more quiet, more prestigious and more fashionable than chd women engineers.
Age: Apart from the general trend for 6th form applicants to give higher ratings, there were no clear age-related dlfferences, although younger engineers (<4O) tended to regard the subject as slightly more stressful than dld older engineers. There was also a tendency for older engineers to perceive the subject as more fashionable and respected.
Overall these results indicate considerable con- sistency in the evaluation of the descriptors by applicants and professional engineers and between the sexes. Both potential engineers and professionals regarded electronic engineering as a creative, stiniu- lating and intellectually challenging career, w h c h offers considerable satisfaction. In their responses, many engineers also indicated that they regarded engineering as ‘varied’, ‘exciting’, ‘fun’ and ‘providmg opportunities for travel’.
Conclusions
This study provided hvo types of information: one concerned the attitudes held by applicants and by professional engineers towards the dlscipline, and the other addressed potential sources of influence on decisions to become an engineer. The responses towards the descriptors indicated that both applicants and professional engineers hold a positive set of attitudes towards the subject. Electronic engineering is seen as exciting, varied, stimulating and creative. It appears that both engineers and potential engineers value these intrinsic quahies somewhat more than any perceived external financial reasons. It is perhaps also worth noting that descriptors relating to the status of the subject, e.g. ‘prestigious’ and ‘respected’, tended to receive neutral ratings from both professional and applicant engineers, confirming that the profession does not enjoy perceived high status even amongst
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those aspiring to become engneers. In general, a positive indicator would appear to
be the positive qualities of intellectual challenge, excitement, variety and creativity associated with the subject. These are quahies which should make any hscipline potentially attractive-unfortunately, these perceptions are not held by those aspiring to become engineers. One challenge for those seelung to increase recruitment and improve public image of the dlsciphe is that of establishmg a sense of such attributes when desigrung recruitment and advertising materials. It is perhaps not unduly cynical to suggest that the image of electronic engineering could receive a sigmficant boost by its portrayal as stimulating, creative and problem- solving in a major TV series, particularly one whch avoided gender stereotyping!
In admtion to the data gathered concerning attitudes towards electronic engineering, the study revealed a number of significant gender Merences regardmg the background of engineers. Coles’ data on female engineering students indlcates that personal decision and parentdfriends were major sources of duences (followed by mathdscience teacher, careers adviser and seminar presentations). The present study adds to this picture by indxating that the potential sources of influence may M e r for males and females (Coles dld not qclude any data on male engineers). Male engineers were more likely to ascribe their interest in engineering to a hobby than were women, who rarely reported such an influence, but who dld appear to have been more influenced by parental and school factors together with a desire to do something practical and/or useful. The latter reason could, perhaps, be regarded as a’ reaction against potential stereotyping whch may be present in the home or in the f d y One respondent wrote: ‘. ..my father said a girl could not become an engineer so I decided to prove lum wrong.’ It is within such a context that farmly influences become apparent. Other engineers were present in the f a d e s of both male and female engineers, but were more likely to be present in the farmlies of women engineers-usually the father. What was not revealed by the responses was the nature of that influence.
In addltion to f d y influences, it appears, not surprisingly, that school influences also played a part, although spec& examples were rarely given. How- ever, a major dlfference to emerge concerned the fact that women engineers were more hkely than male engineers to have attended a single-sex school. Single- sex education has been brought to the fore in recent years by claims that girls do better in single-sex schools than in mixed schools, particularly in the science subjects. Although there are a number of reasons why this might be the case-for example, socio-economic class, range of subjects available as 16+-it emerged as a highly significant difference in this particular survey and would appear to merit further attention. One possibihty is that in a single-sex school, there may be less gender stereotyping concerning the suitability of science subjects and about possible career options.
.
This, however, can be questioned in the light of evidence tiom the Scottish educational system where female participation in science is reported to be equal to male at the point of entry into university6. This has been attributed to a wider choice of subjects at the post-16 level, which enables girls to continue with sciences in combination with language and arts subjects. It should be pointed out, however, that this increase in science participation applies to all science subjects except enginening.
W i t h psychology behaviour is often perceived as the result of the integration of separate sources of influence whch combine to aEect attitudes and planned behaviour. The establishment of attitudes towards engineering will have a complex history. This survey has indicated that, in part, some of these attitudes may have their origins within the f d y kresence of another engineer) and in the school (type of school attended). It would be simplistic to assume that these were all-embracing. Attitude formation is ofien the result of a complex interplay of factors involving early chddhood experiences, family influences, peer pressures, eduational factors and media influences. What this study has indicated is that both applicant and professional engineers hold a set of positive attitudes towards their dlscipline. It has also indlcated that the background of male and female engineers may differ with respect to particular categories of experience. It remains the case that recruitment into electronic engineering is perceived as problematic. The authors’ previous work indicated that, in broad terms, young people hold generally negative perceptions about engineering, and ths study has suggested that engineers themselves do not perceive it as a particularly high-status profession. Ifthe country is to develop a rich source of engineering talent, it will be necessary to address not just the underrepresentation of women, but also to tackle the broader issues of public perception and educational experiences whch combine to help develop a potential engineer.
References
1 COLES, B. S.: ‘Equal opportunities in engineering educa- non’, En8 Sn’. G E d . J , October 1994, 3, (5), pp.199-204
2 SEWELL, D. E, PULKO, S. H., and BROWN, E.: ‘Adolescena’ attitudes towards Electronic Engineering’, Int.
Dr. Sewell is with the Department of Psychology and Eurlng Dr. Pulko is with the Department of Electronic Engineering, The University of Hull, Hull HU6 7RX, UK. Dr. Pdko is an IEE Member.
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