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The Decline of Women in Russian Engineering Education

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Conference

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Atlanta, Georgia

Publication Date

June 23, 2013

Start Date

June 23, 2013

End Date

June 26, 2013

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Women in Engineering (WIED) Division Poster Session

Tagged Division

Women in Engineering

Page Count

7

Page Numbers

23.1179.1 - 23.1179.7

DOI

10.18260/1-2--22564

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/22564

Download Count

479

Paper Authors

biography

Svetlana Vasilievna Barabanova Kazan National Research Technological University

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Dr. Svetlana Barabanova was born in the U.S.S.R. and graduated with a Ph.D in Law from Kazan State University in 1983. In 1986, she started work at Kazan State Technological University, now known as Kazan National Research Technological University. Dr. Barabanova is a specialist in Educational Law and a participant in government commissions for perfection of educational legislation. She has also researched the different problems of engineering education for many years such as lack of educational training. Dr. Barabanova has one daughter and her hobbies include reading, traveling, and caring for her cat.

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Phillip Albert Sanger Purdue University, West Lafayette

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Julia Ziyatdinova Kazan National Research Technological University

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Anastasia Sokolova Kazan National Research Technological University

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Vasiliy G. Ivanov Kazan National Research Technological University

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Abstract

The Decline of Women in Russian Engineering Education: Why and What can be done about it Since the Communist Revolution of 1917 and during the ensuring Soviet times, therole of women in engineering careers and engineering education was strong with almost 60%of the engineers being women. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russian women inengineering have fallen to below 40% of the engineering workforce with a continuingdownward trend. As a point of reference, the representation of women in the U.S. engineeringworkforce has remained around 9% with a very large attrition and departure of women fromengineering professions during college and their early professional life. For a long time, the gender factor did not have any impact on solving the problems ofthe country either politically, economic, or social. However, the presence of women intechnical professions in the educational environment of an engineering university has anumber of advantages while, at the same time, presents many problems. The problems andchallenges are as follows: (1) lack of career opportunities for women with engineeringeducation; (2) few women in administrative positions with influence in the decision makingprocess; (3) the resurgence of stereotypes for women; and (4) conflict between family andprofessional life. This paper explores the impact of gender bias in the Russian academic communityand assesses the obstacles for technically trained women in the male dominated Russianuniversity.

Barabanova, S. V., & Sanger, P. A., & Ziyatdinova, J., & Sokolova, A., & Ivanov, V. G. (2013, June), The Decline of Women in Russian Engineering Education Paper presented at 2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia. 10.18260/1-2--22564

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