Disparity In Australia
Volume 14, Number 3, 2012
© WIETE 2012
Global Journal of Engineering Education
It’s a man’s world: the academic staff gender disparity in engineering in 21st Century Australia
Ian R. Dobson
University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
University of Ballarat, Ballarat, Australia
ABSTRACT: This article examines the academic staff gender disparity in engineering in the 21st Century through an analysis of Australian university staff statistics. The proportion of female academics in engineering is rising, but at a slow rate. In addition, women are more likely to be in junior classifications and less likely to be tenured than their male colleagues. Female engineering academics also tend to be younger than their male counterparts. …show more content…
For example, women represent only 11% of the engineering workforce in the US [1],
10.5% in Canada [2] and 8.5% in the United Kingdom [3].
The gender disparity is less marked in some European countries, with the proportion of the engineering workforce exceeding 25% in Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania [3]. However, in addition to the low female proportion in the United Kingdom, countries such as Switzerland, Austria, Finland and Ireland also have an engineering workforce in which women make up less than 15% [3]. The gender disparity in Australia is also emphatically maleoriented with women occupying less than 10% of engineering jobs [4]. Further, it has been reported that women who do become engineers are more likely to leave the profession [5].
Several reasons have been put forward for women and girls’ apparent avoidance of engineering, including societal beliefs and the learning environment that tends to limit female interest in science and mathematics; differences in cognitive abilities in the area of spatial skills; and bias limiting women’s progress in the scientific and engineering …show more content…
In fact, a closer examination of the increase in the number of female academics in engineering between 2008 and 2009 reveals that 45 of the 95 increase came from expansion at two universities, including 32 from just one university.
Without further information on why half of the increase in women is so focussed on two institutions, one could imagine that either or both of the universities in question established a new engineering teaching unit or research centre, or perhaps corrected coding errors from the past. The annual increase in the number of female academics into the future is more likely to revert to the average of 40 or so extra women that joined engineering faculties in the years 2001 to 2008.
The growth in the number of male academics also increased more between 2008 and 2009, with greater-than-wouldnormally-be-expected growth at three universities.
If the growth in the engineering academic workforce of 34.6% seems to have been quite strong, it should be remembered that not all of the staff involved are involved in teaching; many are hired by universities not to teach, but to spend all
© WIETE 2012
Global Journal of Engineering Education
It’s a man’s world: the academic staff gender disparity in engineering in 21st Century Australia
Ian R. Dobson
University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
University of Ballarat, Ballarat, Australia
ABSTRACT: This article examines the academic staff gender disparity in engineering in the 21st Century through an analysis of Australian university staff statistics. The proportion of female academics in engineering is rising, but at a slow rate. In addition, women are more likely to be in junior classifications and less likely to be tenured than their male colleagues. Female engineering academics also tend to be younger than their male counterparts. …show more content…
For example, women represent only 11% of the engineering workforce in the US [1],
10.5% in Canada [2] and 8.5% in the United Kingdom [3].
The gender disparity is less marked in some European countries, with the proportion of the engineering workforce exceeding 25% in Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania [3]. However, in addition to the low female proportion in the United Kingdom, countries such as Switzerland, Austria, Finland and Ireland also have an engineering workforce in which women make up less than 15% [3]. The gender disparity in Australia is also emphatically maleoriented with women occupying less than 10% of engineering jobs [4]. Further, it has been reported that women who do become engineers are more likely to leave the profession [5].
Several reasons have been put forward for women and girls’ apparent avoidance of engineering, including societal beliefs and the learning environment that tends to limit female interest in science and mathematics; differences in cognitive abilities in the area of spatial skills; and bias limiting women’s progress in the scientific and engineering …show more content…
In fact, a closer examination of the increase in the number of female academics in engineering between 2008 and 2009 reveals that 45 of the 95 increase came from expansion at two universities, including 32 from just one university.
Without further information on why half of the increase in women is so focussed on two institutions, one could imagine that either or both of the universities in question established a new engineering teaching unit or research centre, or perhaps corrected coding errors from the past. The annual increase in the number of female academics into the future is more likely to revert to the average of 40 or so extra women that joined engineering faculties in the years 2001 to 2008.
The growth in the number of male academics also increased more between 2008 and 2009, with greater-than-wouldnormally-be-expected growth at three universities.
If the growth in the engineering academic workforce of 34.6% seems to have been quite strong, it should be remembered that not all of the staff involved are involved in teaching; many are hired by universities not to teach, but to spend all