EXAMINING THE GENDER GAP IN ENGINEERING PROFESSIONAL IDENTIFICATION

Attracting women to the engineering profession has been a topic of ongoing discussion and examination. In light of perceptions of what it means to be an engineer, both male and female students are navigating and aligning their future career goals based on their understandings of engineering as a profession. This study examines 1) the extent to which there are gender differences in affinity toward elements of professional practice (framing and solving problems, tinkering, collaboration, analysis, design, and project management), and 2) whether gender differences in affinity toward these practices contribute to the gender gap in engineering professional identification. Survey data was collected from 2,256 undergraduate engineering students in three majors at one large public institution. Results show significant gender differences in affinities toward five of the six professional practices considered. Additionally, multivariate regression analyses revealed that the gender gap in engineering professional identification is partially explained by differences in these affinities toward engineering professional practices. Further analyses also revealed that affinity toward framing and solving problems was a stronger predictor of engineering professional identification for female students than for male students. Implications of the results are discussed.