Gender Differences In The Attitudes Of Students In Freshman Engineering Courses

Engineering is still struggling to recruit and retain female students. Particular majors have more female students, such as environmental engineering where women earned 44.5% of the U.S. Bachelor’s degrees in the 2006-2007 academic year, compared to an average of 18.1% across all majors. The reasons for these differences are not fully understood. This study compares the attitudes of female and male students in freshmen engineering courses in relation to how engineering benefits society. These traits were assessed using written surveys administered in first year engineering courses in environmental engineering (EVEN), civil engineering (CVEN), and general engineering (GEEN) at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 2004 to 2008. The surveys began with basic demographic questions (gender, race/ethnicity, major) and then presented a series of questions that students responded to on a Likert scale. Male students had a more favorable view of engineers’ role in society than female students, based on responses to questions from the Pittsburgh Freshman Engineering Attitudes Survey (PFEAS). Because previous studies have indicated that females want to benefit society through their work, the continuing poor perception of engineering as a helping profession among females may reflect recruiting problems. More revealing information was found in the reflective essays that the students write at the end of the semester summarizing their feelings about engineering and whether they plan to stay in the major or switch majors.