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Gender Stereotypes of Women in Engineering - Assignment 6[edit]

NASA Goddard hosts STEM Girls night for girls to have more opportunities to be exposed to technology and engineering.

Due to gender stereotypes, women have been discouraged from seeking positions in engineering. These gender stereotypes stem from the generalization that women may only be feminine while men must be masculine. Examples of stereotyping are of girls, being given dolls and being encouraged to be passive, while boys are given cars and encouraged to be aggressive.[1] There are certain careers that have been deemed by society as either feminine or masculine; engineering being thought of as a more masculine career. Due to engineering being seen as masculine, there has been a lower rate of women entering the field.[1] There are many factors that deter women from joining the field, though the common stereotype that a women is unfit for working with technology is commonly associated with engineering.

Under representing Women[edit]

In all parts of the world, women have been largely underrepresented in the engineering field. From the 1970s to 1980s, the percentage of people earning degrees in the STEM career fields had increased dramatically.[2] At the same time, many women had also chosen to pursue the profession. With this increase of women in the profession, many organizations and events had been created to bring awareness to the need of women in the field. Due to the lack of women, there is also a lack of much needed talent missing from the engineering workforce.[3] Although differences in achievements have been suspected of causing the gap between the two genders, studies have shown that both are able to comprehend the math and sciences in the same manner.[3] Since the 1960s, studies of the relationship between women and technology were conducted to discover that the way both women and men were raised along with the educational system, had contributed to which professions each gender gravitated towards. [1]

Workplace Culture[edit]

The workplace is composed of many men and women from various backgrounds. Though due to the workplace culture of engineering, women are faced with issues regarding their stance in the workplace environment. Due to the lower rate of women entering the field, there comes a higher standard for women to fulfill in order to prove their credibility.[4] Depending on the company,however, women can either be confronted with a numerous or a limited amount of opportunities to progress in the profession.[2] Some reasons why women also face criticism when entering and engineering and technology career field is due to motherhood. [5] This family tie, is often seen as a disadvantage to companies as female employees will need more time off. Women also stand out in the workplace since there are many companies whose employees mainly consist of men. [2]The media has been another factor that has contributed to how women are perceived in the workplace as not as many women in the field are well known. [5]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Carter, Ruth (1989-12-01). Women in Engineering: A Good Place To Be?. Macmillan International Higher Education. ISBN 978-1-349-20409-0.
  2. ^ a b c McIlwee, Judith S.; Robinson, J. Gregg (1992-02-06). Women in Engineering: Gender, Power, and Workplace Culture. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-0870-4.
  3. ^ a b Medicine, Institute of; Engineering, National Academy of; Sciences, National Academy of; Roundtable, Government-Industry-University Research; Fox, Marye Anne (2003-12-10). Pan-Organizational Summit on the U.S. Science and Engineering Workforce: Meeting Summary. National Academies Press. ISBN 978-0-309-08960-9.
  4. ^ Faulkner, Wendy (2009-11-01). "Doing gender in engineering workplace cultures. II. Gender in/authenticity and the in/visibility paradox". Engineering Studies. 1 (3): 169–189. doi:10.1080/19378620903225059. ISSN 1937-8629.
  5. ^ a b Burke, Ronald J.; Mattis, Mary C. (2007-01-01). Women and Minorities in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics: Upping the Numbers. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84720-687-9.

Peer review Assignment 7 completed[edit]

I peer reviewed Wilkens Exavier's article in "Artificial Intelligence in video games".

Peer review: So far it looks like you are on a good path. Your topic is an interesting one. Start going into specifics to expand the article.

Assignment 9 completed[edit]

The suggestions made to my draft were helpful in establishing what I could do to improve and strengthen my article. I plan to be more descriptive on parts of my article that should be discussed further.