The underrepresentation of women in engineering typically is explained by gender differences in occupational interests, attitudes, or abilities. This paper examines the gender differences hypothesis as well as anticipated role conflicts of women and men students. We explore the academic, career, and family attitudes and expectations of women and men majoring in engineering. Men and women are remarkably similar in their abilities, academic experiences, and career influences. Women, however, are more likely to anticipate that lack of confidence in their own abilities and conflicts between work and family responsibilities will be barriers to success in their careers. These differences, along with several differences in orientations toward family roles, suggest that a role conflict argument better accounts for the disparity in the career development of men and women engineers. Suggestions for addressing these role conflicts before women begin working as engineers are provided.
I. INTRODUCTIONDespite the increase in the number of women receiving an engineering degree, women still represent less than 8 percent of employed engineers.1 Although the number is increasing, approximately 16 percent of bachelor's degrees in engineering are awarded to women (compared to 10 percent in 1981).2,3 In addition to concerns for women not entering engineering, researchers find that women and men engineers experience disparate career development. For example, women engineers earn less, hold less prestigious jobs, have less supervisory responsibility, and are more likely to be in certain specialties than their male counterparts. 4,5 Many of the programs designed to address the scarcity of women in engineering focus on reducing academic barriers for women by encouraging the pursuit of mathematics and science. Some programs emphasize the relevance of technical fields by increasing girls' exposure to these areas. Other efforts focus on retention, targeting women who are already in engineering programs. These latter programs emphasize faculty sensitivity, learning environments, and learning styles.6-8 These intervention programs are predicated on the assumption that gender differences in exposure/experience, interests, abilities, and attitudes discourage girls and young women from pursuing and remaining in careers in science and technology.Our literature review reveals considerable research support for gender differences in the educational experiences, occupational interests, and perhaps the skills of pre-college men and women. However, this explanation may not account for differences in the college and professional experiences of women and men enrolled in engineering programs because women undergraduates in engineering already have overcome many of the gender differences described in the literature.Instead, anticipation of future role conflict in balancing work and family roles may present a greater barrier to women and steer them away from engineering in general or toward jobs in certain areas of engineering which may be less pres...
