Male and female electronics engineers and electronic engineering: attitudes and influences

This study reports on attitudes, backgrounds and perceived sources of influence of applicant and professional engineers with reference to electronic engineering. In general, both groups held positive attitudes and regarded electronic engineering as a varied, stimulating, creative and intellectually challenging profession. The study also investigated the backgrounds of engineers and revealed significant gender differences. Women engineers were more likely to have attended a single sex school and to report a family structure which contained another engineer. In addition, perceived sources of influence on the decision to become an engineer were different for men and women. These results are discussed in terms of some of their potential implications for recruitment into electronic engineering