Masculinities in organizational cultures in engineering education in Europe: results of the European Union project WomEng

Abstract

The paper describes elements of engineering organizational cultures and structures in higher engineering education from the European project WomEng. Hypotheses, based on state of the art, refer to: women friendly presentation, attractiveness of interdisciplinary teaching methods, single sex education, perceptions of minority status, feelings of isolation, existing discrimination and coping strategies of female students. Quantitative and qualitative methodologies, asking questions of and observing students and faculty are completed by website analyses. The results show that special recruitment and a welcome for women do not exist everywhere and, furthermore, are denied by faculty of some countries. General welcome events are appreciated. Among interdisciplinary subjects, languages and soft skills are preferred, along with people-oriented teaching. Attitudes towards single sex education are controversial. The general male engineering image is combined with negative attitudes and discrimination practices in only some countries. More latent discrimination, like prejudice, jokes and stories, lead to self-confidence coping strategies by female students. The results are reflected on the basis of feminist and men's studies. The conclusions refer to inherent dilemmas in research on masculinities in engineering education.

Keywords:

• Gender
• Organizational culture
• Gendered education
• European project
• Masculinities

Acknowledgements

Students Shirin Reinhard and Jenia Buksman helped with revision of the article. Besides Felizitas Sagebiel (University of Wuppertal, Germany), the following participated in WomEng: Christine Waechter (IFF/IFZ Graz, Austria), Maureen Cooper (University of Stirling, UK), André Beraud and Jean Soubrier (INSA, Lyon, France), Anne-Sophie Genin (ENSAM, Paris, France), Päivi Siltanen (Witec, Finland), Dora Kokla (EDEM, Athens, Greece), Oto Hudec (Technical University Kosice, Slovakia), coordinator Yvonne Pourrat (CDEFI, Paris, France).

About the authors

Felizitas Sagebiel obtained her diploma in social sciences in 1970 (University Erlangen-Nuremberg), and a PhD in sociology in 1978 (Technical University of Berlin). She is a senior lecturer in sociology in the Department of Education, University of Wuppertal). She has been the person responsible for the German partner University of Wuppertal in the EU Commission Accompanying Measure INDECS and IHP Project WomEng as part of the 5th Framework Programme, with the issue women in engineering education and the professional sphere.

Jennifer Dahmen obtained her diploma in social sciences in 2003 at the University of Wuppertal. The research project INDECS, on which she was engaged as a student worker, led to her diploma thesis on ‘Attractiveness of engineering degree courses for women’. Currently she is employed as a scientific worker on WomEng for the German partner University of Wuppertal. Her research interests are gender and diversity in engineering organizational cultures, on which she is focusing her PhD thesis.