The contribution of gender segregated secondary education on the progression to engineering

ABSTRACT

The lack of female participation in engineering education and careers is a barrier to equality and the various economic benefits of a diverse workforce. The causes of gender inequality in engineering should be determined in order to design and implement appropriate remedial measures. This research determines the rate of single-sex high school attendance across genders in student enrolments at the University of Canterbury, College of Engineering between 2005 and 2017 (n = 5992). A psychology cohort (n = 11,698) was used as a comparator. The weighted average rate of female, single-sex high school attendance in engineering was 56.0% of all female students in engineering. This is 4.3x larger than the national average rate of 11.3%. In contrast, the male engineering, and both genders in psychology had a single-sex high school attendance rate of ~35.0%. Notably, the engineering disciplines that had low female participation had the highest rates of single-sex high school attendance. Hence, either single-sex girls’ high schools are effectively encouraging female participation in engineering or co-educational schools are failing to effectively encourage female participation in engineering. This research shows strong bias in a key educational goal across educational strategies, and may enable location of the origin of gender inequality in engineering education.

KEYWORDS:

• Engineering education
• females in engineering
• females in STEM
• diversity in education

Disclosure statement

The authors have no financial conflict of interest, but ultimately would like to improve gender equity in engineering cohorts.

Additional information

Funding

This research was not funded by any agency external to the universities.