Diversity and inclusion in engineering education: Looking through the gender question

Abstract

Abstract-The STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) field in general, and Engineering, suffer from a lack of diversity. Yet there is growing evidence that more diverse organizations are more successful and effective. There is also a global shortage of STEM and engineering skills that can be tackled by addressing the lack of diversity in the field. One obvious way to view this problem is by looking at gender. Women make up 50% of the population, but in Engineering the number of female students and professionals is clearly less than this, often around 10 -25% in many parts of the world. This underrepresentation of women leads us to think about other groups that are underrepresented in Engineering; these include Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) and those from socially deprived backgrounds. This paper examines a number of approaches to support diversity and inclusion to encourage a greater uptake of engineering by underrepresented groups and to retain people in the sector.

A Comparative Study on the Support in Engineering Courses: A Case Study in Brazil and Spain

“…When the question of underrepresented groups in STEM fields is studied, a good first step is to study the women, as shown in [24]. Society is composed of 50% of women, and it is simpler to investigate if the number of students in a field is close to half of the total of students.…”

Strategies to introduce gender perspective in Engineering studies: a proposal based on self-diagnosis

“…Other authors claim for taking into account the diversity in engineering courses and put attention to gender [14]. Related to this, some practical actions for inclusion and engineering education have been published by the Royal Academy of Engineering and the UCL Centre for Engineering Education in 2018 [15].…”

Estudio piloto sobre la percepción de la brecha de género en estudios de ingeniería informática

“…La promoción de la diversidad en todos los niveles educativos se plantea como una de las medidas a llevar a cabo por entidades y gobiernos. En particular, en los sectores STEM (Ciencias, Tecnología, Ingeniería, y Matemáticas) se han identificado grandes desigualdades para una representación equitativa (Alcalá Cortijo et al, 2005;ComunidadMujer, 2016;Hill, Corbett, & St Rose, 2010;OECD, 2015;Peixoto et al, 2018;UNESCO, 2016; UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2018; Unidad de Mujeres y Ciencia del Ministerio de Economía, 2017;World Economic Forum, 2016).…”