Women in Engineering

The under-representation of women in engineering is well documented. 11% of the engineering workforce is female (WISE Campaign, 2017; Women in STEM Workforce) but only 5% of the registered engineers and technicians are female (Engineering UK, 2015). Women are less likely than men to join the profession and more likely than men to leave it, with half of female engineering graduates pursuing careers outside the discipline, and women engineers being more likely to leave the workforce and go elsewhere than men. And crucially, this is not changing. Despite decades of effort and hard work, nothing seems to have made much of a difference and the proportion of women studying and working in engineering has not materially increased in the last two decades.  

So what's going on?

1. Women don't become engineers

The first problem is that women and girls don't enter the field of engineering.

Girls don't think they will be good at engineering, maths and physics, despite the clear evidence that girls are as talented in these quantitative subjects as boys. Girls also don't think they'll fit in within these fields. The stereotype of engineering is that it is dirty, physical, masculine and full of men. Girls just can't see themselves fitting in (Wang & Degol, 2013). Compounding the assumptions that girls make about themselves, are the assumptions that everyone else makes on their behalf, with teachers, parents and friends all echoing the same message, that girls and engineering don't mix, and not giving girls the same levels of encouragement to pursue these subjects (Tomorrow's Engineers' Week).

2. Female engineering students don't always become professional engineers

The second trouble spot comes after university.  About 20% of engineering students in the UK are women, but these undergraduates are less likely than their male counterparts to look for jobs as engineers once they have graduated. Women and men studying engineering claim they are equally likely to look for jobs in engineering, but twice the proportion of male grads go into the field than female (Diversity in Engineering, WES, 2014; Xu, 2014). Seron, Silbey, Cech and Rubinean (2016) explored this in a bit more depth, tracking women engineering students from entry to graduation. They found that everyday sexism during informal interactions both at college and during internships makes women feel they won't fit. 

3. Women engineers are more likely to leave the profession than men

Then finally, women who make it through to embarking on a career in engineering are more likely than men to leave the profession. Frehill, (2012) showed that female engineers were more likely than men to leave engineering for another career and Hunt (2015), showed that women leave engineering far more quickly that other areas of science, or other male dominated spheres such as economics or architecture. 

A host of reasons, structural, cultural, individual and contextual reasons have been put forward to explain why women leave.

The engineering industry doesn't seem very family friendly there seems to be very little opportunity for flexible working and the hours are long, and some authors suggest this might explain why so many women leave (Buse, et al., 2013; Kahn & Ginther, 2015). There certainly does seem to be a dip in the number of women working in engineering after they have children, but other fields such as medicine and law also have similar working cultures and fewer women seem to exit these professions, so on its own this explanation isn't enough. 

I have come across three studies which compare women who have stayed in engineering with those who have left. Buse et al., (2013) conducted a qualitative study of 10 ex-engineers and 20 current engineers and found that those who stayed tended to have higher levels of self-efficacy than those who left, although this finding has not been shown elsewhere (eg Fouad et al., 2016). Buse's study suggests another reason, that the women who leave are those who can't see how they can navigate their careers in the field. This issue was also spotted in two large-scale quantitative studies conducted in the US, comparing female engineers who left the profession with those who stayed. Fouad et al. (2015) and Hunt (2015) both found that the women who left engineering had a much less positive view about their career development within engineering, the opportunities for increased pay, promotion and general organisational support and didn't feel that their contributions were particularly valued. 

4. Women don't progress as well in engineering -pay and seniority (Xu, 2015)
Women who stay in engineering report having to contend with an alien and unwelcoming masculine culture, putting up with what are described as micro-aggressions on a daily basis. These micro-aggressions include social undermining and workplace hostility, harassment, sexist behaviour, marginalisation and isolation (Ayre, Mills & Gill, 2013; Fouad, Fitzpatrick & Liu, 2011). Faulkner, through an observation study, notes that engineers are generally a respectful bunch, but saw many subtle examples of behaviour which just make it a little bit easier for men to build relationships and fit in, noting in particular the typically masculine conversation topics, and sexualised and sexist banter. Faulkner gives the example of greetings: men greet each other using male language (such as 'hey man') and shake hands with each other, but don't do either of these things with women. Those small subtle intimacies are not available for male / female relationships which just means that every day in tiny ways, women are not able to build up the relationships with their male colleagues that men can with each other. On top of this, women are judged more harshly than men, and their colleagues and managers undervalue their achievements and contribution (Hall & Sandler, 1982)

Female engineers develop certain strategies to help them cope with this chilly masculine climate. One of the most common is defeminisation (eg Faulkner, 2009; Powell et al., 2009; Rhoton, 2011), where women adopt masculine behaviours to fit in, distancing themselves from typical feminine behaviours and habits. Miller (2004) in the oil industry gives examples of women who have embraced the masculine culture - almost pretending not to be women in order to get on. Short term this strategy may work for the women involved, but long term this does women no favours, as it reinforces the idea that there is no place for femininity in engineering.

One other interesting response which is seem quite widely in the literature, is women denying that they are on the receiving end of any sexist behaviour. Fouad, Fitzpatrick and Liu, 2011 found that their participants all described gender discrimination but didn't see it as a gender inequity. Rhoton (2011) found that when they did see it, participants saw it as exceptional. Seron, Silbey, Cech and Rubineau (2018) cover similar ground but with engineering students. They found they whilst their female participants recognised that they were being marginalised, they found narratives to explain it away. They blamed themselves, believing in the meritocracy of the industry (I haven't been recognised for my work because it's not good enough, or because I haven't shouted loudly enough), and felt that it was down to them to sort it out.

One thing that women don't seem to want is more female only opportunities; their achievements are undervalued as it is, this just makes it worse. Seron et al., 2018 found that engineering students were quite anti-feminist because they wanted to make it on their own merit. 

So, it seems that we know quite a lot about the career experiences of women in engineering. We know that they don't join, and why they don't join; we know that they leave and why they leave. But whilst we know that one key reason that they leave is because they feel that they are not progressing, we don't know why they don't progress. I wonder if that's the next thing to explore?

References
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