Analysis of Masculinities Across Engineering Disciplines

Abstract

Engineering has remained one of the most male-dominated professions around the world with male-bias in undergraduate engineering student cohorts is still prominent. Little research has been done comparing differences between, or establishing a trend in, enrolment of female engineering students across different engineering departments/disciplines. On the other hand, a key factor in the low number of students entering engineering may be inaccurate perceptions of the engineering disciplines. In this regard, this study is focused on two issues: (1) to examine the pattern of gender-enrolment across the various engineering disciplines offered, in the period between 2003 and 2014, and (2) to review, highlight and clarify on distinguishing information about each area of engineering specialization present in the 5 departments at School of Engineering. A detailed examination reveals that generally, males dominated the entire disciplines.  Distribution of female students in engineering departments is not even (both within the subject period and between the departments), and they are, on average, more greatly represented in some departments than others; in particular, Chemical& Process Engineering was found to be the least ‘masculine’, while Mechanical& Production Engineering-the most. The question “why the enrolment of females varied from one discipline to another?” was logically raised, but remains unreciprocated, as it was outside the scope of this concise study. Nevertheless, this study made a recommendation for further survey to address the issue.

Keywords: females, engineering disciplines, ‘masculine’, admission, university.