Abstract of "Improving the Academic Environment for Women Engineering Students through Faculty Workshops"
Author(s):
Robby Henes, Mary Margaret Bland, Jeannie Darby, and Karen McDonald
Underrepresentation of Women in Engineering
Although there are many more women in engineering today than
there were 30 years ago, we are still far from reaching equal
representation of men and women. It is both surprising and
disturbing to point out that the percentage of women among
those obtaining engineering degrees has fallen over the past
five to eight years. In recent years, women obtained 14.5% of
the bachelor of science degrees in engineering in the United
States, but only 6.8% of the doctorates. The latter leads to a
conclusion that even those few women who obtain a bachelor's
degree in engineering rarely choose to go on to a more advanced
degree. A study done using the statistics of student enrollment
in the engineering programs in the College of Engineering at
the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), shows that,
compared to men, women are less likely to enter and to persist
in undergraduate engineering programs and less likely to
complete a graduate degree. In 1992, a survey designed to try
to explain the latter statistics was administered to students
in 11 undergraduate engineering classes at UC Davis. Responses
to the open-form survey questions and follow-up discussions
with female engineering students, engineering faculty, and
professional engineers indicated five major reasons women leave
or become discouraged with engineering.
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Isolation
From early childhood, girls tend to be more isolated than
boys from the engineering profession; this could be explained
by the following:
- Girls get less exposure to toys and activities that can
provide them with a basic curiosity about engineered objects
than boys do.
- Girls are less likely to be exposed to examples of
engineering professions and to be encouraged to view
themselves as potential engineers.
- If a girl does know an engineer, that engineer is not
likely to be a woman.
At the first- and second-year college levels, engineering
students are isolated from each other. They are scattered
throughout university dormitories and throughout sections of
the required basic mathematics, chemistry, and physics classes.
Lack of time also contributes to the isolation because, due to
their challenging course schedules, the students are often
unable to participate in engineering student organizations and
form an academic/social network useful for survival in
engineering.
In the UC Davis survey, 12% of the women, and only 1% of the
men, indicate that isolation was a discouraging factor for them
in engineering.
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Inability to see the relevance of highly
theoretical basic courses
While women, on average, perform well academically in the
basic required courses, some have difficulty in relating the
theoretical material to the applied problem-solving discipline
of engineers. The latter difficulty is compounded because
typical examples (e.g., the workings of an automobile or the
trajectory of a football) used to make the material relevant
are not likely to be drawn from women's prior experience.
Because the material in these courses is not readily related to
their prior knowledge or to their future goals, many women lose
interest and turn to other majors where the relevance is more
clear.
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Negative experiences in laboratory courses
Many women feel inadequate and intimidated in the
laboratory classes because:
- They have not had previous hands-on experience with
mechanical and electrical devices.
- They feel uncomfortable with being the only woman in a
laboratory group.
- Nowadays, more and more men enter laboratory classes with
as little hands-on experience as women, but they are less
likely to display that ignorance and less likely to see it as
a weakness in themselves.
A striking 12% of women, compared to 2% of men, surveyed
indicated that laboratory experiences were a significant
discouraging factor.
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Classroom climate
In the UC Davis survey, 30% of women, and only 18% of men,
said they were reluctant to ask questions and participate in
discussion in classes, one reason being that females are not
socialized to be assertive, particularly in large groups and in
the presence of males. This tendency is reinforced by the fear,
often based on the prior reactions of others, that their
questions or comments will be ignored or trivialized.
Lack of role models
While 34% of women, versus just 15% of men, stated that
other people (e.g., teachers, family, friends) were significant
in reinforcing their desire to continue in engineering, it is
obvious that there are few female role models on engineering
faculties. Therefore, women students do not have access to a
large number of faculty who have had similar experiences and
whose very presence says "You can do it," as male students
do.
Differential changes in self-esteem
All of the factors described above have a negative effect on
women's self-image as engineers, as can be concluded from
Arnold's 1987 Illinois Valedictorian Project. The project has
examined the changes in self-esteem of 80 students, who
graduated at the top of their high school classes, through
their college years. Although the group continued its high
academic performance, a self-estimate of their intelligence
relative to that of their peers revealed a shift of self-esteem
to lower ratings for the women. While 25% of the men ended
college with a self-estimate in the highest category of
intelligence, not a single woman would say the same about
herself.
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Faculty workshops
The statistics presented provide evidence that productive
policies for recruiting and retaining women in engineering are
desirable, and necessary, given the barriers present within
engineering. The Center for Women in Engineering (WIE) at UC
Davis initiated the development, implementation, and evaluation
of two faculty workshops to address these issues.
The workshops were entitled "Exploring the Academic
Environment for Women in Engineering," and the following
objectives were established for them:
- To increase faculty awareness of, and sensitivity to, the
difficulties that women face in engineering.
- To encourage faculty members to generate specific ideas
to use in their own teaching to enhance the learning
environment.
A key message offered to faculty members was that becoming
sensitive to issues that women face in the classroom enhances
the learning environment for all of their students.
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Methodology
Description of the First Workshop
The first workshop was held on May 20, 1992. It started off
with an introduction, during which the statistics highlighting
women's representation in engineering both nationally and at UC
Davis were presented. Then the keynote speaker, Professor Jay
Mechling of the American Studies Department, presented a review
of the last 20 years of research on gender equity in academia,
stressing that new models and a depth of awareness about
socialized norms will help educators become better teachers for
all their students.
The keynote address was followed by the student/alumnae
panel, in which several students and alumnae described some of
their experiences to faculty members. This component of the
workshop was designed to personalize the somewhat abstract
workshop issues for participating faculty by highlighting
concrete examples within their own institution. A
question-and-answer session followed. After the panel session,
small-group discussions provided another opportunity for
faculty to process the information they had received and
develop their own ideas concerning the issues presented. Case
studies drawn from a faculty survey were available for the
groups to use as starting points for discussion. In the final
component of the workshop, ideas generated within the small
groups were summarized. To evaluate the workshop, all
participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire.
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Description of the Second Workshop
The format of the second workshop, held on March 4, 1993,
started off with an introduction similar to the first one.
However, the presentation was made by the director of WIE
rather than by faculty members, and specific goals for the
participants were presented:
- Faculty members should gain insight into and appreciation
for the difficulties often encountered by female students in
engineering.
- Faculty members should develop concrete ideas and tips
that they could use to improve their own teaching.
There were four explicit guidelines:
- The workshop is important for both men and women.
- It is assumed that educators at the workshop care about
the quality of their teaching.
- The focus is on what individuals, rather institutions,
can do about the problem.
- While the focus is on gender issues, increased awareness
of differences, and sensitivity to methods for incorporating
differences into the classroom, will benefit all
students.
In place of a keynote speaker, a series of dramatic
sketches, titled "Alphabet Challenge," was presented. The
sketches were an interactive demonstration of some of the more
common situations that occur in academic settings and were
designed to highlight the problems identified as barriers for
women in engineering. "Alphabet Challenge" was followed by the
student/alumnae panel and the small-group discussion. To ensure
that participants left with specific ideas, a booklet entitled
"Ideas and Tips for Increasing Gender Equity in Your Teaching"
was distributed at the end of the workshop. Several WIE staff
members attended the workshop with the specific task of
observing the participants and the process in order to provide
immediate feedback. The evaluation questionnaire was revised,
and participants were asked to complete it at the conclusion of
the workshop.
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Results
Evaluation of the First Workshop:
The questionnaire which the participants were asked to
fill out at the end of the workshop provided the following
feedback:
- 60% were surprised by the information presented.
- 72% felt that their views had changed as a result of
attending.
- Only about 50% felt that the amount of time devoted to
discussion of the issues was adequate.
- 82% wished to have another workshop.
- 56% felt that receiving additional literature would be
desirable.
Evaluation of the Second Workshop:
The following feedback was provided by the revised
questionnaire:
- 94% gave the workshop an overall rating of either
"excellent" or "good."
- 44% thought that the "Alphabet Challenge" sketches and
the student/alumnae panel and discussion were the most
valuable components of the workshop.
- The suggestions from the faculty included monitoring
student behavior and participation, asking for more student
feedback, and being more encouraging of students.
- 67% indicated that they were willing to participate in
follow-up research.
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Observations and Recommendations
The goals for the faculty workshops were to foster an
environment in which faculty could become more aware of the
engineering academic environment and develop concrete steps to
improve the situation. Based on staff observation and faculty
evaluations, both workshops were successful in providing
opportunities for increased understanding of the issues that
affect women engineering students. More than 75% of the
participants felt they were able to create personal plans of
action using concrete tools and ideas received in the second
workshop. The second workshop proved to be more appropriate for
the UC Davis community than the first, mainly because of the
drama sketches, which were highly praised by the faculty.
While workshops for engineering faculty obviously cannot
address all barriers to women's full participation in
engineering practice, they can make a significant contribution
toward changing the overall academic environment that women
encounter as they pursue engineering degrees. Workshops such as
these may help faculty members recognize the potential factors
that are within their immediate control. Moreover, although the
workshops were designed to address the issue of a difficult
environment for women in engineering, research indicates that
teaching techniques that encourage women are also beneficial
for men and for minority students of both genders.
--abstract by Online Ethics Center staff.
Original article by Robby Henes, Mary Margaret Bland, Jeannie Darby, and Karen McDonald
Robby Henes, Mary Margaret Bland, Jeannie Darby, and Karen McDonald
"Improving the Academic Environment for Women Engineering Students through Faculty Workshops"
Journal of Engineering Education
84
.1
(January 1995):