Representation of women and perceptions of support in engineering

A deductive coding scheme developed during a previous stage of a multi-institutional research project was used with interview data to gain a more nuanced understanding of the types of gender specific supports identified by female participants and how these might be related to the numeric representation of women. Findings confirm that gender ratios in a field affect perceptions of the gender appropriateness of a field. The numeric representation of women is a type of contextual support that is important because it communicates, not that women need special treatment, but that women belong and can succeed in a field. Within the context of a culture that communicates values that are consistent with it, extracurricular clubs like SWE and positive female role models, send the message that obstacles, while present, are surmountable and that the benefits associated with the outcome make the effort worthwhile.