Gender Equity And Engineering: A Review Of Education Policy And Research Since 1964

The civil rights and women’s movements have created profound and lasting changes in the education and employment opportunities of many United States citizens. Yet despite these changes, equality for marginalized groups has yet to be fully realized. In this paper, we will examine how the passage of civil rights legislation has defined the direction and scope of subsequent education policy and research in terms of gender equity. In 1964, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, which, among other things, prohibited racial discrimination in education. As a part of this Act, Congress also commissioned a national study to determine the extent of racial inequality in terms of access to educational opportunity. With the passage of Title IX, in 1972, discrimination on the basis of sex in educational institutions and programs was also prohibited, but, unlike the 1964 Civil Rights Act, no research to examine sex discrimination was included in the legislation. In the early 1980’s, national concern about the growing shortage of scientists and engineers gave rise to policy initiatives designed to increase the numbers of women in science and engineering. Yet women’s presence in engineering education programs remains low. A review of the research literature suggests that this persistent under representation is not simply the result of poor academic preparation or gender-specific patterns of socialization, but is also embedded in the habits of mind that have shaped education research and public policy since 1964.