reputation building: girls and young women professionally studying engineering science

19.04.23 Dr. Sylvia Neuhäuser-Metternich 1

Reputation Building:

Girls and Young Women

Professionally Studying Engineering Science

Dr. Sylvia Neuhäuser-Metternich

Dortmund University of

Applied Sciences and Arts;

Ada-Lovelace-Mentoring e.V., Germany


Germany: SET educationGirls and women underrepresented

< 20 %

engineering degrees


Girls drop out from SET

Why?


Let’s have a look to perceptions!


perceptions are interactive

we see we are seen


Girls drop out from SET• How do they perceive SET? • What are their expectations about SET-

careers ?• How are they perceived in their gender roles ? • How are teachers interacting with them?


Reputation Building Follows Stereotyping

• Logical thinking and technical understanding seen as “male abilities”

• Communication and team building seen as “female strengths”

• Girls considered as “not interested in and talented for SET”


Reputation Building Follows

Stereotyping

Significant other persons perceptions,

e.g. teachers and peers:• believe in girls’ underachievement• girls are getting lower grades in math and

science subjects • official devaluations


Images and the Media

Observations and conclusions


WOMENG Germany (2005)

• Interviewed: 100 f and 100 m SET-students• Analysed: web pages from 6 TU• Evaluated: didactics in curricula of

engineering courses

Male image of SET in strong contrast to female image of girls


Scientist (Londa Schiebinger 1989)

• isolated individual • white and male • profoundly alone


Scientist: self-sufficient individual Not evident in the picture:

• his colleagues, technicians, graduate students, secretaries

• his wife • patrons and politicians influencing his

work


Image of Scientist or Engineer

• descriptive and proscriptive• cultivates its own clientele

Londa Schiebinger (1989)


Male image of SET

very powerful in defining:

• the person who is scientist

• what science is like

• no positive female image to counteract


In the media, at school, and at university daily proved:

“Scientists are male!”

“a lack of role models for females”

(OECD 2009)


Identity construction

Girls and young women in SET

best advisors in developing effective strategies to recruit and retain female scientists


Video clips

and information material

produced by

engineering students at

Dortmund University of

Applied Sciences and Arts


Objectives of the Video Clips (I)

• develop role models

• de-construct gender stereotypes

• make problem solving skills of female students visible


Objectives of the Video Clips (II)• support positive attitudes towards SET • promote equal opportunities • recognition of technical problems to

be solved


Objectives of the Video Clips (III)• encourage creative problem solving,

inventiveness and innovativeness• provide experiences of success and

accomplishment


Objectives of the Video Clips (IV)• strengthening self-esteem and

empowerment• stress the ethical perspective, e.g.

environmental sustainability


Conclusions and Outlook

Gender analysis

enhance SET by sparking

new perspectives, questions,

and missions


THANK YOU!

reputation building: girls and young women professionally studying engineering science

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