Unseen Barriers: The Persistent Reality of Gender Discrimination in Education and the Workplace in Engineering Fields

Women comprise half of the population but continue to be underrepresented in STEM fields, especially engineering. This study explores the factors (individual, contextual, and barrier) influencing a woman's decision to pursue engineering as a college major and as a post-graduation career. A total of 47 questions covering 7 sections were developed in Google Forms and distributed via the Society of Women Engineers' social media platform plus Reddit's WomenEngineers page. Ninety-three people responded in total, with 86 classified as valid responses. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the relationships between the questions to underlying factors. Results from SEM found that interest in engineering is a significant factor in women's decisions to stay in the field. Additionally, the results indicated that, overall, there was no gender discrimination on campus; however, it was present in the workforce. ANOVA analyses revealed that there were significant differences in the perception of gender discrimination, work-life balance, and engineering choice among different demographic groups. Younger women reported perceiving less gender discrimination in the workplace compared to older women. Similarly, women who had been employed for less than one year perceived less gender discrimination than those with over five years of experience. Women working in environments where male colleagues were the majority reported higher levels of gender discrimination than those with a more balanced gender distribution among colleagues. In terms of work-life balance, women who had been employed for under a year reported better work-life balance than those who had been working for over a year. Additionally, women with undergraduate degrees in engineering were more likely to work in engineering fields than those who held a Ph.D. in engineering. In conclusion, this study highlights the significance of fostering interest in engineering, along with the impact of societal factors (such as gender discrimination policies) and individual factors (such as work-life balance skills), in supporting women pursuing careers in engineering.