According to the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee as of 2012, only 14 percent of engineers of women (Casey) but yet women in America as of 2016 are 50.6 percent of the united states population (Countrymeters). Ideally in every field the male to female ratio should represent the population of the area but yet there is a 36.6 percent difference between the ratios of women in the population and women in engineering. That means there should be about 732,000 more women in engineering (NSPE). Within these 732,000 could be the newest car, the first successful man on Mars, ways to restore our planet, or even a brand new device that has not even been thought of yet for various reasons women are driven away from a career in engineering. A major
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Identity is how we view ourselves. As people we tend to put others and ourselves in categories. For instance if someone is on a soccer team at their high school some may put that individual in an athlete category while another student whom is in the orchestra as a musician. This thought process though becomes flawed when we put people in demeaning categories for reasons that do not correlate with those traits. This is called stereotyping. By stereotyping we negatively affect people’s identities. In a study by Capobianco, she examined exactly how this sense of identity has affected how girls have picked their future careers. The experiment began with four factors being monitored. “…(1) academic identity (self-beliefs or self-images in who children are as students); (2) school identity (children’s affiliation or attachment to their school); (3) occupational identity (children’s self-understandings of an occupation); and (4) engineering aspirations (children’s self-goals, aims, or objectives of becoming an engineer)” (703). The study concluded that the only factor considered that did not create a huge impact is school identity. This means that who the student sees in themselves as in adolescent years has a huge impact on them later on. The scientist of this study added emphasis to the idea of expanding this study to better application of improving how students could potentially see themselves, particularly in a STEM …show more content…
A study by Lourens showed ways to strengthened female engineers while in college. This study took place in South Africa and ran over the time of four years. The study concluded that adding co-curricular interventions during the college experience can improve the overall work life of women during their education then later on in their careers. Examples of co-curricular interventions is providing opportunities for undergraduates to work with women in engineering careers and workshops to help women with study skills, project management, and teamwork. The specific study emphasized the idea of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is defined as “self-belief of one’s competence to execute successfully a course of action necessary to reach a desired outcome or goal” (115). Previous studies show that low sense of self-efficacy is positively correlated to lack of preparation for exams and poor overall grades. The aim of this study is to find ways to improve self-efficacy among women in engineering. This source proved to be a strong source because of the evidence directly showing that it is possible and gives good reason to give women in engineering extra support. Since girls overall are entering a field where they are not as accepted as males, they are setup to fail. By providing this extra needed support in efficient ways, the overall self-efficacy of women in engineering will increase giving
Identity is how we view ourselves. As people we tend to put others and ourselves in categories. For instance if someone is on a soccer team at their high school some may put that individual in an athlete category while another student whom is in the orchestra as a musician. This thought process though becomes flawed when we put people in demeaning categories for reasons that do not correlate with those traits. This is called stereotyping. By stereotyping we negatively affect people’s identities. In a study by Capobianco, she examined exactly how this sense of identity has affected how girls have picked their future careers. The experiment began with four factors being monitored. “…(1) academic identity (self-beliefs or self-images in who children are as students); (2) school identity (children’s affiliation or attachment to their school); (3) occupational identity (children’s self-understandings of an occupation); and (4) engineering aspirations (children’s self-goals, aims, or objectives of becoming an engineer)” (703). The study concluded that the only factor considered that did not create a huge impact is school identity. This means that who the student sees in themselves as in adolescent years has a huge impact on them later on. The scientist of this study added emphasis to the idea of expanding this study to better application of improving how students could potentially see themselves, particularly in a STEM …show more content…
A study by Lourens showed ways to strengthened female engineers while in college. This study took place in South Africa and ran over the time of four years. The study concluded that adding co-curricular interventions during the college experience can improve the overall work life of women during their education then later on in their careers. Examples of co-curricular interventions is providing opportunities for undergraduates to work with women in engineering careers and workshops to help women with study skills, project management, and teamwork. The specific study emphasized the idea of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is defined as “self-belief of one’s competence to execute successfully a course of action necessary to reach a desired outcome or goal” (115). Previous studies show that low sense of self-efficacy is positively correlated to lack of preparation for exams and poor overall grades. The aim of this study is to find ways to improve self-efficacy among women in engineering. This source proved to be a strong source because of the evidence directly showing that it is possible and gives good reason to give women in engineering extra support. Since girls overall are entering a field where they are not as accepted as males, they are setup to fail. By providing this extra needed support in efficient ways, the overall self-efficacy of women in engineering will increase giving