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This study aims to ascertain the factors that influence young women engineers in Sri Lanka to choose engineering as their career choice and to study the nature of workplace support they receive in a highly gendered work environment. An online self-administered questionnaire containing five-point Likert type and open-ended questions were distributed via email among a conveniently selected sample of over 200 young women engineers with less than 10 years of working experience in Sri Lanka. Eighty-two responses were received. Likert-type responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics and graphical methods, while thematic analysis was employed for responses to the openended question. Cleverness in mathematics and the higher reputation prevailed in the society for the engineering profession have majorly contributed to the young women engineers' career choices in engineering. They experience a fairly supportive working environment in their workplaces. Many of them were satisfied with their salary, promotions and other professional achievements. Qualitative responses further revealed the gender-based discrimination, lesser job opportunities, industry-wise differences, fallacies on women engineers and difficulties in balancing the work-life as the other concerns in their workplaces. Although these findings cannot be generalized to the Sri Lankan industrial sector due to the use of convenient sampling, this study reveals prevailing concerns of young women engineers for the attention of the engineering fraternity and employers.

From its inception to today, engineering has been a profession in which male engineers dominate. Although technology and education have developed to a higher level, there can still be seen a hesitation among young female students to choose engineering as their future career. The masculine nature of the engineering profession is further reinforced with the belief that engineering is not meant for women but men. Numerous factors like balancing worklife conflicts, existing discriminatory practices on women engineers, lack of role models, and the demanding nature of the engineering profession have demotivated young female students to choose engineering and young female engineers to sustain in the engineering profession. Still, the literature is not saturated with studies on women engineers who could sustain in the gendered industries in various contexts. Hence, this study aims to investigate the perception of the self-confidence of young women engineers in the Sri Lankan context and to recommend staying strategies for future women engineers based on their industrial experience, which will motivate young female students to choose engineering. A self-administered questionnaire comprised of several close-ended questions with five-point Likert-type responses and an open-ended question was designed to achieve this study's objectives. It was circulated among a conveniently selected sample of 250 young women engineers in Sri Lanka via email & Facebook. 82 responses were received. Responses for Likert-type questionnaires were analyzed using a simple graphical method, while open-ended responses were analyzed using the thematic analysis technique. Analysis revealed that most respondents were confident in discharging their duties as women engineers. Further, they recommended that future women who wish to become engineers should choose the engineering discipline wisely, be passionate, and be dedicated to the engineering profession if they want to sustain themselves in it. The findings of this study will motivate and guide future young women engineers to succeed in the profession.