Gender differences in professional identities and development of engineering skills among early career engineers in Finland

Figures & data

Table 1. Background information of respondents.

	Number (n)			Percent (%)
	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total
Respondents	3133	971	4104	76.3	23.7	100.0
Nationality: Finnish	2488	733	3221	77.2	22.8	100.0
Other EU/ETA country	103	30	133	77.4	22.6	100.0
Country outside of EU/ETA	542	208	750	72.3	27.7	100.0
Year of Birth: Mean	1990	1990	1990
Median	1991	1992	1992
Field of Education (Eng./Tech.)
Mechanical & Energy	617	100	717	86.1	13.9	100.0
Electrical & Automation	735	124	859	85.6	14.4	100.0
IT & Telecom	710	178	888	80.0	20.0	100.0
Process & Materials	318	267	585	54.4	45.6	100.0
Construction & Surveying	296	134	430	68.8	31.2	100.0
Industrial Management	454	165	619	73.3	26.7	100.0

Figure 1. Average of respondents’ ratings of the survey items with respect to the three aspects of interest (importance, development in studies, and development at work) by gender.

Table 2. Factors (see Appendix for full factor loadings of items).

Factor name	Eigenvalue	% of Variance	Cronbach’s alpha
Working life skills	8.75	30.17	0.84
Business and management	2.11	7.29	0.65
Expertise and substance knowledge	1.69	5.69	0.69
Analytical skills	1.32	4.56	0.80
Communication skills	1.07	3.67	0.70
Social skills	0.98	3.38	0.73

Table 3. Statistical difference (Mann–Whitney U test) and effect size (Hedge’s g) of the difference between the responses of female and male respondents.

Factors and items	Importance		Development in studies		Development at work
	M–W sig.	Hedge's g	M–W sig.	Hedge's g	M–W sig.	Hedge's g
Analytical Skills	0.00	0.2	0.37	0.0	0.56	0.0
Self-knowledge	0.00	0.2	0.39	0.0	0.00	0.1
Self-confidence	0.00	0.2	0.19	−0.1	0.23	0.0
Creativity	0.00	−0.1	0.00	−0.2	0.00	−0.1
Critical thinking skills	0.00	0.1	0.45	0.0	0.58	0.0
Analytical thinking skills	0.20	0.1	0.43	0.0	0.87	0.0
Ethicality	0.00	0.3	0.03	0.1	0.06	0.1
Business and management skills	0.01	0.1	0.44	0.0	0.28	0.0
Knowledge in sustainable development	0.00	0.3	0.00	0.2	0.02	0.1
Knowledge of the basics of business operations	0.88	0.1	0.12	0.1	0.54	0.0
Entrepreneurial capacities	0.65	−0.1	0.00	−0.1	0.00	−0.2
Communication skills	0.00	0.3	0.27	0.0	0.05	0.1
Written communication skills	0.00	0.3	0.16	0.0	0.00	0.2
Oral communication skills	0.00	0.3	0.10	0.1	0.16	0.1
Visual communication skills	0.00	0.2	0.37	0.0	0.01	0.1
Skills in digitalisation and utilisation of data	0.94	0.1	0.48	0.0	0.23	0.0
Expertise And Substance Knowledge	0.00	0.1	0.65	0.0	0.39	0.1
Know-how related to my own field of studies	0.00	0.1	0.74	0.0	0.76	0.0
Skills in practical application of theories	0.00	0.2	0.40	0.0	0.00	0.1
Mathematical and natural science skills	0.00	0.0	0.42	−0.1	0.17	0.1
Knowledge of the research in my own field of studies	0.00	0.1	0.00	0.1	0.01	0.1
Knowledge of the history and development of my own field	0.00	0.0	0.05	−0.1	0.11	−0.1
Social skills	0.00	0.2	0.00	0.2	0.08	0.1
Leadership skills	0.03	0.1	0.00	0.1	0.91	0.0
Team working skills	0.00	0.1	0.00	0.1	0.23	0.1
Social skills	0.00	0.2	0.00	0.1	0.00	0.1
Working life skills	0.00	0.2	0.00	0.2	0.00	0.2
Abilities to work independently	0.00	0.2	0.00	0.2	0.00	0.2
Problem-solving skills	0.07	0.1	0.12	0.0	0.54	0.0
Information retrieval skills	0.00	0.1	0.00	0.1	0.00	0.1
Skills related to international work environment	0.00	0.2	0.00	0.1	0.01	0.1
Project management skills	0.00	0.2	0.00	0.3	0.00	0.2
Skills in time management and prioritising tasks	0.00	0.2	0.00	0.2	0.00	0.2
Attitude toward developing one’s skills in working life	0.00	0.1	0.19	0.0	0.01	0.1
Career management capacities	0.00	0.2	0.02	−0.1	0.46	0.0

Note: Statistically significant differences and effect sizes equal to or greater than 0.2 are given in bold. The effect sizes equal to or greater than 0.3 are also italicised.

Table 4. Results of factor analysis: Combined means (scale: 1–6).

	Importance		Development during studies		Development at work
	Male	Female	Male	Female	Male	Female
Communication skills	5.10	5.28	4.49	4.52	4.33	4.44
Social skills	5.39	5.50	4.51	4.65	4.60	4.68
Business and management	4.63	4.72	3.98	4.02	3.87	3.83
Expertise and substance knowledge	4.79	4.87	4.79	4.78	4.27	4.32
Working life skills	5.50	5.61	4.78	4.90	4.88	5.01
Analytical skills	5.23	5.35	4.60	4.57	4.58	4.62

Note: Statistically significant differences (according to the Mann–Whitney U tests) are given in bold.

Figure 2. Combined mean scores (cumulative) for importance of Communication Skills by gender and field of education (Process & Materials Engineering and Industrial Management).

Table A1. Factor analysis results: Factors, included items and full factor loadings.

	Name of factor (eigenvalue, % of variance, Cronbach’s alpha)
	Working Life Skills (8.75, 30.17, 0.84)	Business and Management (2.11, 7.29, 0.65)	Expertise and Substance Knowledge (1.65, 5.69, 0.69)	Analytical Skills (1.32, 4.56, 0.80)	Communication Skills (1.07, 3.67, 0.70)	Social Skills (0.98, 3.38, 0.73)
1.8 Problem-solving skills	0.765	−0.089	0.110	−0.005	−0.010	0.007
1.13 Skills in time management and of prioritising tasks	0.631	0.055	0.027	−0.024	0.098	0.140
1.9 Information retrieval skills	0.618	−0.002	0.076	−0.137	0.030	−0.115
1.4b Abilities to work independently	0.612	−0.071	0.143	0.013	−0.006	−0.001
1.14 Attitude towards developing own skills in working life	0.586	0.078	−0.015	−0.188	−0.019	0.088
1.12 Project management skills	0.552	0.235	0.003	0.075	0.054	0.209
1.11 Skills related to international work environment (including language skills)	0.454	0.205	−0.077	−0.069	0.182	−0.049
1.15 Career management capacities	0.448	0.147	−0.001	−0.136	0.057	0.201
1.5 Knowledge in sustainable development	−0.009	0.645	0.166	−0.212	−0.078	−0.008
1.7 Entrepreneurial capacities	0.126	0.637	−0.090	0.100	0.220	0.025
1.6 Knowledge of the basics of business operations	0.352	0.587	−0.129	0.116	0.003	0.245
1.2b Knowledge of the history and development of my own field	−0.121	0.449	0.445	−0.125	0.019	−0.106
1.1 Know-how related to my own field of studies	0.104	−0.067	0.743	0.057	−0.022	0.182
1.4 Skills in practical application of theories	0.266	−0.106	0.695	0.069	−0.017	0.068
1.2 Knowledge of the research in my own field of studies	−0.180	0.221	0.538	−0.160	0.203	−0.137
1.3 Mathematical and natural science skills	0.103	0.126	0.447	−0.092	0.137	−0.280
1.24 Critical thinking skills	0.103	−0.078	0.043	−0.723	0.058	−0.013
1.25 Analytical thinking skills	0.291	−0.192	−0.024	−0.633	0.143	−0.147
1.21 Self-knowledge	0.066	0.125	−0.014	−0.628	−0.055	0.278
1.23 Creativity	−0.079	0.068	−0.011	−0.575	0.257	0.034
1.26 Ethicality	−0.048	0.355	0.057	−0.529	0.014	0.035
1.22 Self-confidence	0.104	0.017	0.054	−0.520	−0.032	0.418
1.16b Visual communication skills	−0.070	−0.048	0.045	−0.083	0.748	0.159
1.16 Written communication skills	−0.046	0.029	0.125	−0.088	0.637	0.044
1.16c Skills in digitalisation and utilisation of data	0.213	0.057	−0.098	−0.001	0.634	−0.181
1.17 Oral communication skills	0.062	−0.073	0.086	−0.005	0.559	0.449
1.20 Social skills	0.118	0.050	0.005	−0.192	0.060	0.659
1.19 Team working skills	0.237	−0.076	0.101	−0.130	0.099	0.555
1.18 Leadership skills	−0.006	0.274	0.011	−0.003	0.247	0.544

Note: Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Oblimin with Kaiser Normalization.