Pilot exploration of gender inclusivity of engineering students’ exposure to engineering practice in an Australian university

Abstract

To society’s detriment, women remain under-represented among engineering students and practicing engineers in Australia. Many studies have shown that engineering workplaces have features that are not gender inclusive. Efforts to improve engineering education by increasing industry engagement might therefore also result in non-inclusive student experiences, with potentially detrimental outcomes. This study reports on a pilot investigation of the gender inclusivity of industry engagement by student engineers. We explored experiences of exposure to engineering practice by students who were studying at an urban Australian university. The study used the framework of possible selves, which examines the factors that motivate people to achieve or avoid possible future selves [Markus, H., and P. Nurius. 1986. “Possible Selves.” American Psychologist 41: 954–969.]. Through interviews with four female and two male engineering students, we discovered gendered encounters experienced by students and the impacts these had on their perception of their future and their current directions. The female students reported marginalising gendered encounters similar to those reported by female engineers in other studies. The pilot highlights the need for further investigation.

Keywords:

• Gender
• engineering education
• work integrated learning
• curriculum development
• possible selves theory

Acknowledgements

The student participants are gratefully acknowledged.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.