Annotated Bibliography of Ethical Issues in Physics: Under-Represented Groups

The demographics of the physics profession in this country do not mirror the population at large in a number of ways that should cause us concern

Dilemmas of girls and women in engineering: a study in Portugal

The reason that girls and women withdraw from science and technology education and careers has been a universal concern in the social sciences. This study investigated how gendered constructions of identity are translated into the barriers and fears that female students and professional women experience in decision-making about their careers. We conducted interviews with 63 girls and 39 women in academic and professional engineering careers, focusing on their interpersonal relationships with boys and men in their school and occupational engineering settings, respectively. Participant discourse highlighted the difficulties women face when managing the antagonistic discourses of femininity and masculinity in a social environment in which they are frequently forced to submit to hegemonic masculinity. The consequences of women’s differing discourses about the “masculine world” and the “feminine world” are discussed, and some strategies for creating more equalitarian relational environments in school and work settings are discussed.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

La escasa representatividad de las mujeres en áreas típicamente masculinas: factores explicativos y pistas para la intervención

Apesar de alguns progressos verifi cados em relação à igualdade de participação de mulheres e homens na educação e no trabalho, determinadas áreas de ensino e do mercado de trabalho continuam a ser altamente defi citárias na representação feminina. É o caso das Ciências, Tecnologias, Engenharias e Matemáticas. Esta constatação é de particular importância para a Psicologia Vocacional, pois interfere com o processo de tomada de decisão, planeamento e ajustamento de carreira de mulheres adolescentes e adultas. Este artigo começará por referir dados que exemplifi cam a extensão do problema para, posteriormente, se centrar em algumas das explicações encontradas para este fenómeno. Terminar-se-á com a apresentação de diversas propostas de intervenção, desde o plano micro até ao plano macrossistémico.Despite some advances regarding equality of participation of sexes in both education and work, certain areas of education and the labour market continue to be highly lacking in female representation. This is the case of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. This fact is of particular importance to vocational psychology because it interferes with the processes of decision making, career planning and career adjustment of girls and women. This article provides data that caracterize the problem and focuses on some of the explanations found for this phenomenon. Some suggestions are made for actions from both the micro and the macro-systems.A pesar de algunos progresos verificados con relación a la igualdad de participación de mujeres y hombres en la educación y en el trabajo determinadas áreas de la enseñanza y del mercado de trabajo continúan siendo muy defi citarias en la representación femenina. Es el caso de Ciencias, Tecnología, Ingeniería y Matemáticas. Esta constatación es de particular importancia para la Psicología Vocacional pues interfi ere en el proceso de toma de decisión, planeamiento y ajuste de carrera de mujeres adolescentes y adultas. Este artículo empezará por referir datos que ejemplifi can la extensión del problema para, posteriormente, centrarse en algunas de las explicaciones encontradas para este fenómeno. Se terminará con la presentación de diversas propuestas de intervención desde el plano micro hasta el plano macrosistémico

Perceptions of Female High School Students on Engineering

There is overwhelming evidence that females are underrepresented in engineering worldwide, and Kenya is not an exception. Recent study at School of Engineering (SOE), Moi University (MU) established that engineering parity ration was found to be 1.68 %, meaning that for every 59 students admitted to MU there was only one student admitted to SOE. Engineering female parity index was found to be 0.0038, meaning that, on average, for 260 female students admitted to MU, only 1(one) female student was admitted to SOE. Humankind depends on engineers to create new technologies, to find solutions to practical problems and to shape the world that people live in and the future they rely on. Yet young people have little or no perception of engineering and the understanding they do have is all too often confused with other careers, such as science. The perception of engineering as “masculine” and “too hard” is a contributing factor for the female minority in engineering. On the other hand there are very few studies on what high school students think about engineering. In view of the above, this paper will try to fill this gap of information, by exploring teenage girls’ perceptions of engineering as a subject for study and as a potential career choice. Furthermore, it will attempt to raise awareness about and improve the image of engineering, by providing fused notion of engineering to the potential broad audience of this paper. The study is significant and essential for deeper comprehension on the subject matter, and for proposing and designing effective strategies to increase females’ representation in engineering. Quantitative and qualitative methods have been used in this study. The researchers designed, administered and analyzed a 21-question questionnaire addressed to 100 female students at secondary school in Eldoret, Kenya (at their Form Four-final year of study). Qualitative Data Coding Techniques were applied to interpret the collected data. In addition, “Draw an Engineer Test” (DAET) was included as one of the questions in the questionnaire. The purpose of the test is to have students describe their perception about engineers via drawn responses. Each picture was analyzed for the images and artifacts contained in the drawings. The study established that majority of female pupils have a fairly good idea of what engineering is and they generally have a positive attitude towards it. The rest of the students, however, perceived engineering as largely dirty and noisy manual-work. To help changing that misconception, this study proposed several recommendations. The most important ones are: In order to attract much more females into engineering, both stereotypes (Engineering and Gender) should be challenged and, in the long run, changed; To make engineering a core-subject, differentiated from science, in the Secondary Schools educational curriculum; To offer students freedom of choice of future career, providing exposure to various career alternatives; and finally, students should choose a career that matches one’s personality. Keywords: gender, engineering, engineer, stereotype, perception

“É ela quem vai me atender?” Os desafios das mulheres em profissões culturalmente masculinas / “will she attend me?” The challenges of women in culturally male professions

A pesquisa teve como objetivo investigar os obstáculos, motivações e expectativas de mulheres em profissões culturalmente consideradas como masculinas. O estudo é relevante haja vista a dificuldade que as mulheres ainda enfrentam para ascender a melhores cargos na organização, mesmo com desempenho superior a homens. A pesquisa mapeou e entrevistou quatro mulheres que exercem profissões culturalmente masculinas em duas cidades da região norte do Piauí, que se encaixam no perfil desejado: policial militar, vigilante, proprietária de escritório de contabilidade e agente de trânsito. Através de um roteiro de entrevista semiestruturada, os dados foram coletados e analisados por meio de unidades de sentido. Os resultados indicam que as mulheres tiveram dificuldades de adaptação e sofrem situações embaraçosas, principalmente por parte de clientes, e algumas situações atingem a vida pessoal das entrevistadas. No entanto, o orgulho da instituição e a felicidade pelo conteúdo do trabalho as estimulam a permanecer na profissão