NORMA eResearch @NCI Library

Will They, Won’t They: An exploratory study of female final year civil engineering undergraduates and their persistence in civil engineering careers and the factors that motivate this decision.

Kavanagh, Dorothy (2015) Will They, Won’t They: An exploratory study of female final year civil engineering undergraduates and their persistence in civil engineering careers and the factors that motivate this decision. Masters thesis, Dublin, National College of Ireland.

[thumbnail of Master of Arts]
Preview
PDF (Master of Arts)
Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

Women in engineering have long been a minority. Reported statistics of enrolment in engineering in 2015 was 7.895% for general building and civil engineering. This study reported a much higher statistic of 18%. This elevated statistics may be due to the small population of civil engineers graduating this year, 100 to be exact. Lecturers report that while the overall numbers have fallen, the number of girls has remained static although the percentages may have increased.

A qualitative study was carried out over six learning institutions by conducting interviews with 6 final year female civil engineering students and got an additional perspective from two female lecturers.

Thematic analysis was conducted through its three stage to extract three overarching themes that explained the low numbers of girls in civil engineering as the nurturing nature of females and civil engineering doesn’t fit this value, the personality type that is attracted to engineering, the self confessed anomalies and the social and cultural influences that believes women are not suited to civil engineering.

Item Type: Thesis (Masters)
Subjects: T Technology > TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management > Human Resource Management > Performance Management > Motivation
H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > Issues of Labour and Work > Classes of Labour > Women and Work
Divisions: School of Business > Master of Arts in Human Resource Management
Depositing User: Caoimhe Ní Mhaicín
Date Deposited: 10 Oct 2015 14:18
Last Modified: 10 Oct 2015 14:19
URI: https://norma.ncirl.ie/id/eprint/2040

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item