Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 4

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Caroline Ghio, Northeastern University; Sydney Anne Morris, Northeastern University; Hannah Marie Boyce, Northeastern University; Bradley Joseph Priem, Northeastern University; Paul A. DiMilla, Northeastern University; Rachelle Reisberg, Northeastern University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

First-Year Engineering StudentsAbstractThe purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of peer tutoring experiences on upper-class male and female tutors who provided supplemental instruction (SI) for first-yearengineering students enrolled in required general chemistry and physics courses at NortheasternUniversity. Our previous research has shown a correlation between regular use of SI by first-yearengineering students and increased GPA, as well as gender-based differences in SI usage andeffects of SI. In this study, we turned our focus to the effects of the tutoring role on the tutors andsought to elucidate 1) whether tutors perceived that they benefitted from the SI experience, and ifso, in what ways, 2) how gender affected attitudes

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 4

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Sarah Appelhans, University at Albany-SUNY

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

and belonging in engineering culture. The inequality of women in engineering has beenattributed to persistent male-dominated cultures and women’s difficulty establishing themselvesas legitimate engineers. In 1993, McIlwee [1] found that men’s identities in engineering centeredaround “tinkering” hobbies and passion for technology. Women’s interest in engineering, incontrast, was typically more academic and less “hands on”. In her ethnographic work withengineering students, Tonso [2] argued that despite a wide range of normative engineeringidentities, none of them were associated with women. Ten years later, McLoughlin [3] arguedthat while some women were drawn to engineering through the “traditional” pathway of passionfor technology, there is

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 8

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Beverly Louie, University of Colorado Boulder, College of Engineering & Applied Science; JoAnn Silverstein, University of Colorado, Boulder; Robyn Sandekian, University of Colorado Boulder

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

as well as the institutional behaviors that enable unequal outcomes.Ultimately robust data analysis and communication will be the basis for new structures to sustaina productive and diverse faculty.Inclusion has been broadly defined as: “active, intentional and ongoing engagement indiversity—in the curriculum, in the co-curriculum, and in communities (intellectual, social,cultural, geographical) with which individuals might connect—in ways that increase awareness,content knowledge, cognitive sophistication and empathic understanding of the complex waysindividuals interact within systems and institutions” [1, para. 6].For academic institutions the goal of inclusion addresses recognition of individuals acrossmultiple identity factors (e.g

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 10

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Katherine L Walters, University of Georgia ; John M Mativo, University of Georgia; Uduak Zenas George, San Diego State University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

, digital image processing and analysis, and numerical approximation of partial differential equations on fixed and evolving domains. American c Society for Engineering Education, 2020 Women enrolled in engineering programs: Their interests and goals Although women earn about half of science and engineering bachelor’s degrees, and 44%of master’s degrees, women are underrepresented in certain areas of science and engineering [1].According to the National Science Foundation, women received the highest amount of sciencedegrees in psychology and biosciences, and the lowest in computer sciences and engineering [1].Why are women entering the fields of psychology and biology

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 6

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Maureen C Smith, San Jose State University; Jinny Rhee, San Jose State University; Belle Wei, San Jose State University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

undergraduates do not rate themselves asbeing as creative as a “typical engineer”, and there is a strong association between self-ratings ofcreativity and professional identity. Engineering identity is discussed in the context ofparticipants’ reported goals for the conference and its benefits. Suggestions for promotingengineering identity are described.Introduction and BackgroundAs universities aim to address the gender gap problem of their engineering and computer sciencestudent population [1], recruiting and retaining women has become ever more critical. To thisend, a one-day annual Women in Engineering conference [2] was organized and hosted by alarge public university in the west. One overarching goal of the conference is to foster thedevelopment of

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 7

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Denise Wilson, University of Washington

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

hasidentified student groups in engineering who are likely to struggle more or be disadvantagedcompared to majority White male students.Gender: Women make up 58.2% [1] of the population in the United States yet earn only 19.8%of all bachelor’s degrees in engineering and 24.2% of masters degrees [2] [3]. In the workforce,they represent only 14.5% of engineers [4]. Despite extensive efforts to reach gender parity inengineering [5], engineering remains stubbornly resistant to providing a compelling andwelcoming environment for women while other fields like biology and math have advanced tomuch greater gender balance at 60% and 42% of bachelor’s degrees granted to womenrespectively [6]. Women bring diversity of thought to engineering and their

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 2

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Chris Gewirtz, Virginia Tech; Francesca Giardine, Smith College; Robin Ott, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Anne Kary

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

that includedtransgender, gender-nonconforming, and an option to skip the question. The data set includedinterviews with the participants conducted at three, six, and twelve months of work. Interviewswere analyzed with multiple rounds of coding to determine which challenges articulated byparticipants were unique to women.Results indicate that women face many of the same challenges as men. Women also face a set ofunique challenges, which were sometimes overtly rooted in sexism.IntroductionSignificant research in the past few decades has documented the experiences and challenges thatwomen in engineering face, not only in a professional setting but also as engineering students[1], [2], [3]​. However, few of these studies have reported on the

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 10

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

M. Teresa Cardador, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Karin Jensen, University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign; Kelly J Cross, University of Nevada, Reno; Grisel Lopez-Alvarez, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

American c Society for Engineering Education, 2020 Work in Progress: A Qualitative Exploration of Female Undergraduate Decisions to Specialize within Engineering DisciplinesIntroductionWhile engineering has long been recognized as one of the most highly and persistently sexsegregated occupations in the US, researchers have also begun to recognize patterns of intra-occupational sex segregation within engineering, such that gendered roles and career paths existin the engineering profession [1-3]. Men are more frequently in the most technical roles (i.e.,those that rely almost exclusively on technical rather than professional skills). These roles areoften perceived as the highest status and most

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 5

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Anu Osta, Rowan University; Jennifer Kadlowec, Baldwin Wallace University; Alissa Papernik; Amanda Ferreira Dias-Liebold, Rowan University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

to complete and understand the necessary courseworkthis is required in engineering, whereas if a male student fails a course he views it as he needs towork harder for next time. This lack of confidence in female students causes them to leave themajor17.In keeping with the above considerations, a study was undertaken at this university with thefollowing goals (1) to find the factors that help recruit women engineering students, (2) toidentify the challenges and barriers being faced by female students working in multidisciplinarynon-female dominated teams engaged in project-based learning activity18, (3) to find acorrelation between their experiences and their underrepresentation and/or retention in theengineering field. The overarching goal

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Laura Bottomley, North Carolina State University; James Samuel Carter III, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

women students inthe College of Engineering at NC State University [1]. The program was first outlined in 2009 atthe ASEE Annual Conference. When the program was started, admitted students with the lowestmath SAT scores were invited to attend. This decision was taken, because internal researchindicated that math performance was predictive of engineering retention, and it was desired toincrease the retention of engineering students who identify as female. Over time, the SAT scoresof admitted engineering students have increased significantly. Additionally, the activitiesdesigned to instill confidence in mathematics were determined through assessment to have littleeffect. Therefore, the activities of the camp were redesigned to focus more on

Conference Session

Environmental Engineering Technical Session 4: Environmental Issues and the Impacts of Intersectionality

Collection

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Daniel B. Oerther, Missouri University of Science and Technology

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering, Women in Engineering

). American c Society for Engineering Education, 2021 Workshop Result: Teaching Structured Reviews to Environmental Engineering Researchers Daniel B. Oerther Missouri University of Science and Technology, 1401 North Pine Street, Rolla, MO 65409AbstractAs part of the 2019 biennial conference of the Association of Environmental Engineeringand Science Professors, a pre-conference workshop on the topic of structured reviewswas delivered to 22 participants. The workshop had three objectives, namely: 1) raisingawareness about the process of structured reviews; 2) demonstrating the process ofstructured reviews; and 3

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 3

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jenna P. Carpenter, Campbell University; Lee Kemp Rynearson, Campbell University; Lynn A. Albers, Campbell University; Michele Miller, Campbell University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

, the program waslaunched with an initial class of approximately 100 first-year students in fall of2016.Building a new school of engineering affords a number of unique opportunities,including the chance to develop a program based on best practices, engineeringeducation research, and the recommendations of national reports such as"Educating the Engineer of 2020,"1 among others. It also provides the opportunityto recruit and graduate a more diverse cohort of engineers, by taking into accountresearch on attracting and retaining a broad spectrum of students. Given the dean’spersonal passion about and expertise in creating a culture of success for a broadspectrum of students, diversity was quickly added to the list of program goals.Those goals

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 3

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sara Hillman, Texas A&M University at Qatar; Ghada Salama, Texas A&M University at Qatar; Emilio Ocampo Eibenschutz, Texas A&M University at Qatar; Saly Mohamed Ali Awadh, Texas A&M University at Qatar; Lara El Said, Texas A&M University at Qatar

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

. Based on the findings of the focus groups, we then designed an anonymous surveyto be sent to current TAMUQ female students (see Appendix B). 100 responses were recordedout of the 231 female engineering students, which resulted in a 43.29% response rate (seeAppendix C). The majority of the students who responded were Qatari (57%).Focus Group FindingsWhy our students chose engineering?In terms of why our students chose to study engineering, there were two main themes. Manymentioned a “passion” for fields such as mathematics or chemistry since a young age.Participants also discussed feeling the need “to prove” or “to show” something:Example 1: It’s like you want to do something different, to prove to everyone that you’re capable of

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 4

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mark M. Budnik, Valparaiso University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

theories to explain the increasing enrollment of women in the class. We will present ourconclusion that the increase in female enrollment is a result of a number of different factors,rather than one single reason.IntroductionLike many other engineering programs, Valparaiso University has worked diligently to increasethe enrollment of women and under-represented minorities in its exclusively undergraduateengineering programs. However, such enrollments have only oscillated about the nationalaverage over the past ten years. While there is slight variation from year-to-year, the distributionof the women enrolled in the various programs also mirrors national averages (see Table 1).Table 1. Enrollment of Female Students, Male Students, and Percentage of

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 6

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christina L. Carmen, University of Alabama, Huntsville; Deborah Lynn Fraley, Women in Defense, TN Valley Chapter

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

UAH/WID STEM tools have been delivered to local schools in the Tennessee Valleyarea, as well as to a regional hands-on science center. A multitude of STEM principles areconveyed and demonstrated via the tools. Fig. 1 provides a sampling of recent tools. AdditionalSTEM tools include, but are not limited to, the following: multiple tabletop wind tunnels,earthquake simulators, pulley systems, ballistic pendulum, solar system display, catapults, hybridFigure 1. UAH/WID STEM tools, clockwise from top left: fluid flow circuit, Wimshurstmachine, mechanical and solar energy race track, dyslexic brain display, “Space Pong”-potentialand kinetic energy display (photo credits: C. Carmen)engine, water distillation system, and re-configurable learning

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 7

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lesley Cremeans, Texas Tech University; Audra N. Morse P.E., Texas Tech University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

-Corps, 2012).NSF’s I-Corps seeks to foster entrepreneurship through a customer and business modeldevelopment to advance the commercialization of technology. The NSF’s strategic plan for the2011-2016 fiscal years (FY) is to focus on empowering the nation through discovery andinnovation (NSF, I-Corps, 2012). The NSF I-Corps aims to develop and nurture innovationecosystems through three specific components: 1) Teams, 2) Nodes, and 3) Sites. I-Corps Teamsis the technical, entrepreneurial, and business education needed to launch innovations. I-CorpsNodes gather, analyze, evaluate, and utilize data to enhance our nation’s innovation capacitythrough education, infrastructure, and research that will benefit society. I-Corp Sites aim tonurture and

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 5

Collection

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jia G. Liang, Kansas State University; Rick Evans, Cornell University; Stacey E. Kulesza, Kansas State University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

action, the participants and theirrelationships, and the discourses needed for participation as well as any other mediational meansnecessary for performing those actions. To conclude, we present key recurring themes evident inthe early data. Agency is the originating and continuing motivation. It is realized throughconfronting challenging problems, participating in “hands-on” doing in response, and producingtangible outcomes. Through involvement, these women experience community and understandboth failure and commitment as opportunity and necessity, respectively. Finally, they experiencebecoming an engineer.IntroductionIn “Women in Engineering: A Review of the 2014 Literature,” Meiksins et al. [1] echo the“familiar explanations for why there are

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 3

Collection

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jing Wang, University of South Florida; Dmitry Goldgof, University of South Florida; Ken Christensen P.E., University of South Florida

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

how a women’s support group in a computer science and engineeringdepartment can provide support for women in personal growth, social encouragement, andacademic exposure.Studies found that the top four influencing factors for whether or not young women decide topursue a Computer Science degree are: social encouragement, self-perception, academicexposure, and career perception [1]. Social encouragement can come from parents, friends,faculty/staff, or peer. It is a major factor in girls’ decision to explore and pursue career in STEMand computing. A support group provides an excellent vehicle for these factors by offeringworkshops, social events, outreach activities, and mentoring.In 2013, we started a support group WiCSE (Women in Computer

Conference Session

Climate Issues for Women Students

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Yong Zeng, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign; John R. Duncan, Clemson University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

interviews and focus group similar to the proposed project. Page 12.1614.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 Women: Support Factors and Persistence in EngineeringAbstractLimited information is available regarding the factors that promote persistence by women inengineering programs. Stated simply, the problem is that the number of women engineerscontinues to fall short in comparison to the gender ratio of women to men in the population in theU.S.1 and worldwide2. More women engineers are needed in general and in proportion to maleengineers. This study addressed two questions. (1) What are the factors that support women

Conference Session

An International Perspective

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Mary Anderson-Rowland, Arizona State University; Bianca Bernstein, Arizona State University; Nancy Felipe Russo, Arizona State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

slow. In spite ofmany efforts to increase the numbers and percentages of women in engineering, not muchis happening. Some would argue that the reason that engineering enrollment for bothwomen and men has not kept up with the increased numbers of students choosing to goon to college, is that engineering now has more attractive competitors such as medicineand law for talented young women to choose.1 Engineering has not done a good job ofmarketing itself as creative, interesting, and exciting. The lower division engineeringcurriculum is composed mostly of mathematics, chemistry, physics, and now biology,without connecting the dots and helping the young engineering student to understand whyshe needs to study these topics to achieve her goals

Conference Session

Poster Session

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Cottrell, University of North Carolina-Charlotte

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

imminentshortage of scientists, technologists, engineers, and mathematicians; further, female high-schoolstudents show little interest in pursuing careers related to engineering.1 This lack of interest maybe a significant factor in understanding the “Extraordinary Woman Engineers Project” whichreported that currently fewer than 10% of the nation's engineers are women in spite of the factthat girls do not lag behind boys in grades or test scores in either math or science.2 The program presented by this paper represents perhaps part of the solution to thisparadox by investing in the female youth of today through proven hands-on learning techniques.3This paper reports on a local initiative by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte to investin

Conference Session

Potpourri Session

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jessica Buck, Jackson State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

increasing their representation in the non-traditional fieldsof study and are becoming more knowledgeable of technology’s multi-facet components,there still remains significant under-representation of females in areas such as IndustrialTechnology. Nelson (2004) 33 indicated that lack of female representation in technologymay be due to a threefold purpose: “(1) women of the world lack knowledge oftechnology, (2) technology alienates and often exploits women, and (3) decisions abouttechnology are made without women’s voices” (p.2). This is reflected from Mayer’s(1995)27assertion that females comprise only 30 percent of the industrial workforce. Thisglobally illustrates moderate but consistent initiatives. The U. S. Department of Labor(2003)38 reported

Conference Session

Recruitment and Retention Topics

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Yolanda George, AAAS; Patricia Campbell; Tom R. Kibler, Campbell-Kibler Associates, Inc; Rosa Carson, Campbell-Kibler Associates, Inc.; Shirley M. Malcom, AAAS

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

. Page 12.352.2© American Society for Engineering Education, 2007 Changes in PhDs Awarded and in New Enrollees in STEM Graduate Programs by Gender and Race/EthnicityOne of the goals of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Alliances for Graduate Educationand the Professoriate (AGEP) Program, which began in 1998, is to increase the number ofunderrepresented minorities (URM) receiving PhD degrees in Science, Technology, Engineeringand Mathematics (STEM) (See program description at bottom of page)1. As part of this effort,participating institutions submitted data on their students, including PhD recipients and newenrollees in graduate programs, by gender and by race/ethnicity2. The following is an overviewof the results

Conference Session

Poster Session

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lari Garrison, University of Washington; Reed Stevens, University of Washington; Portia Sabin, University of Washington; Andrew Jocuns, University of Washington

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

admissions process, because the college was seeking tobecome “more diverse”. What is significant about this is that UWest is located in a state that, bya voter-passed state initiative, does not allow admission to be based on gender. This paper seeksto answer the question, what do students believe about the admission process at UWest and howdo these beliefs impact the navigational practices and identity formation of women who areengineering and pre-engineering students? Additionally, what cultural models are brought tobear on the students’ attempts to navigate applying to the college of engineering?1. Theoretical framing1.1 Research on gender and STEM fieldsIn this section we begin by looking at the body of literature that exists about gender and

Conference Session

Potpourri Session

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Danny Bee, University of Wisconsin-Stout; Brenda Puck, University of Wisconsin, Stout; Peter Heimdahl, University of Wisconsin-Stout

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

the spring of2005, a survey was conducted of alumni of the STEPS classes of 1997, 1998, and 1999. Thesurvey was focused on determining their college program of study and sought to determine the Page 12.1384.3influence STEPS had in their program of study. Additionally, optional written comments weresolicited, and these comments can be seen in Appendix 1. Table 1 below summarizes theprograms of study from the three graduate groups. The table results also indicate the influencerank the graduates assigned indicating the influence they felt STEPS had on their career choice.A 0 indicates STEPS had no influence on choice and a 5 indicates STEPS had

Conference Session

Climate Issues for Women Students

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sheryl Duggins, Southern Polytechnic State University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

. Page 12.1228.2Any paper addressing the shortage of women in the computing sciences must begin with anexamination of the underlying issues surrounding the recruitment and retention of women incomputing related fields. To understand the depth of the problem, one need only examine thedata. Whereas the number of women in the sciences has increased over the last two decades,especially in medicine and biological sciences, the number of women in computer science (CS)has dramatically decreased over the last two decades.1 Women in biological and agriculturalsciences currently earn half the Bachelor’s degrees, while the number of women graduating withBachelor’s degrees in computer science from United States Universities reached the highestpoint of 37.1

Conference Session

Issues of Diversity

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Moshe Hartman, Retired; Harriet Hartman, Rowan University; Jennifer Kadlowec, Rowan University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

, electrical, electrical/computer, and mechanical engineering. Female students range from 11 to 17 percent representation in these fields. These six disciplines make up 63 percent of all [engineering] bachelor’s degrees. The solution to attracting more women to engineering will certainly require a review of this equation. (Gibbons4:1)The growth of computer engineering, in which men received over 87% of the bachelor’s degreesawarded in 2005, is a major contributing factor to the decline in women’s overall representationin engineering degrees, even though their absolute numbers in engineering are growing2.Students’ choice of majors has been linked to

Conference Session

Recruitment and Retention Topics

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Elizabeth Godfrey, University of Auckland

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

influenced by the nature and content of a discipline andhow it was practised in the “real world”, as well as influenced and reinforced by how staffand students played their role.Recent participation data for the US in 2004, provided in Table 1, demonstrate thatElectrical and Mechanical Engineering – which together account for approximately one-halfof all degrees awarded in Engineering – have a collective percentage of female degree -earners of just 14%, while all remaining Engineering disciplines – account for the remaininghalf of degrees issued in Engineering – having double that percentage at 28%.Table 1: Earned Bachelors Degree by Gender 2004 12 Academic Discipline/Field Both Genders Female % Female Male % MaleAll Academic

Conference Session

Retention Programs for Women Students

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kieran Sullivan, Santa Clara University; Ruth Davis, Santa Clara University

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

success for women engineering students at Santa Clara University. We examinedpsychosocial factors, such as commitment to engineering and confidence in engineering abilities,as well as the effect of a specific intervention on the retention rate of young women engineeringstudents.Studies have shown that among students with adequate aptitude for STEM (Science,Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), girls drop out more often than boys. Severalprograms have been developed to encourage girls to persevere in their interests in STEM fields.In the summer of 1999, SCU hosted a National Science Foundation workshop[1] gatheringdirectors of such programs to share their experience and insights. Forty-four people representingover 30 STEM programs for girls

Conference Session

Issues of Diversity

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Carol Burger, Virginia Tech; Soyoung Lee, Virginia Tech; Anne Laughlin, Virginia Tech; Peggy Meszaros; Elizabeth Creamer, Virginia Tech

Tagged Divisions

Women in Engineering

2004-05 (College 1, n=80) and female ITmajors in 2005-06 (College 2, n=22) were surveyed for a retrospective view about how theycame to their decision about their college major.Our quantitative data analysis was performed using one-way ANOVA with the Welch’s methodto determine differences in variables between three groups: high school females, college studentsin non-IT related majors, and college students currently in an IT-related major. The keyvariables tested were: parental support for careers, decision orientation, attitudes toward ITworkers, computer use, and IT career interest and choice.In order to fully understand the scope of the factors that influenced their attitudes and actionswith regard to computers and computer-based study and