Oh My! For a Girl, You...? Gender Cultures In Engineering Departments in an Institution of Higher Education from the Prespective of the Female Students

Abstract

Given that there is a shortage of engineers and IT professionals in some segments of the Hungarian labor market, it is an important strategic objective to increase the number of secondary school students who opt for technology programs as their first choice when applying for university programs. One way to achieve this aim is to persuade more young women to apply for programs in these fields, where they are still extremely underrepresented. Our research explores some elements of the gender culture at the faculties of technology of a Hungarian university, drawing on Brigitte Liebig’s model. We compared the organizational elements of the gender culture with the situation outside of the organization. The data we analyze was elicited in focus group discussions with female students of the electronic, mechanical engineering, and IT faculties. The results show that the female students in the research have met almost the same doubts concerning their professional ambitions within the organization as outside of it. On the other hand, Many female students also felt that in the organization they had experienced several advantages of being a woman, such as greater attention and greater extent of helpfulness from professors, although in some cases this attention was combined with an attitude from the professors that implied the female students would be less successful in the completion of the required tasks.