Examining Gender Equality in the Field of Mechanical Engineering
Investigative work is being done to determine why the field of mechanical engineering appears to lag behind other STEM fields in terms of gender equality.
Through the British Council's Gender Equality Partnership programme, researchers at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and Nile University in Egypt have each received $25,000 to study the factors that affect career choice and advancement.
The participation percentage for women in mechanical engineering degree programmes increased from 8% in 2012 to 10% in 2016, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). In contrast, between 2010 and 2020, the proportion of women accepted into full-time undergraduate STEM programmes increased by 49%.
Unblocking the Equality Pipeline in Mechanical Engineering is a 12-month initiative with 100 women at various stages of the career "pipeline," from first-year undergraduates to the most senior levels of the profession. It will build two parallel networks in the UK and Egypt. There will be 100 males at comparable professional levels to supplement the networks. Once established, the networks will discuss the opportunities and obstacles they have encountered in their careers, supported by recurring surveys meant to pinpoint the "blockages" in the pipeline. Heriot-Watt University is leading the study's UK component, while the researchers at Nile University have contributed their research to the findings.
Heriot-Watt University students, postgraduates, and alumni will make up the UK network. The research team will connect with alumni dating back to those who enrolled in the University 40 years ago, in addition to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty, in mechanical engineering. Staff and students from Heriot-Watt campuses in Dubai and Malaysia are a part of a separate study, providing the chance for cultural comparisons in addition to those between Heriot-Watt and Nile Universities.
Project leader Professor Bob Reuben of Heriot-Watt University's School of Engineering and Physical Sciences said in a statement: “This project gives us a chance to identify, in a quasi-longitudinal fashion, if equality of opportunity exists for women. By simultaneously engaging with both ends of the pipeline, complemented by published historical national benchmark data we hope to be able to form some conclusion about if, and how, things have changed in mechanical engineering.
“Currently, we don’t see anywhere near as much growth in participation rate amongst women in mechanical engineering even when compared with other areas of engineering. We want to unpack equality of opportunity and participation rate and, if we can, break any negative feedback loops that we can identify by publishing our findings and raising awareness through our network which we hope will become self-propagating at the end of the study period.
Prof Reuben continued: “Do female university applicants not see modern mechanical engineering as a potentially fulfilling career? Is there a societal bias about the subject? Has the environment in peer groups at school, university and in the workplace changed over the past decade? We’re not sure but we want to know so that we can try to accelerate the pace change as it affects our subject.”
The findings are expected to be published at the end of 2023.
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