IJRIT International Journal of Research in Information Technology, Volume 3, Issue 4, April 2015, Pg. 215-222

International Journal of Research in Information Technology (IJRIT) www.ijrit.com

ISSN 2001-5569

Designing Conceptual Frameworks on the Factors Affecting Female Engineering Students to Pursue Academic Degrees in Higher Education and in Careers Dr Sujit Kumar Basak Lecturer, Department of Information Technology, Durban University of Technology Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa [email protected]

Abstract This paper aimed to present conceptual frameworks on the factors affecting female engineering students to pursue academic degrees and for the careers. This aim is achieved by identifying factors affect by female engineering students for academic degrees and careers. The main result of this paper was concluded by designing conceptual frameworks based on the existing literature. The novelty of this paper is the use of a significant body of literature that has focused on the existing literature on the factors affecting by female engineering students to pursue academic degrees and for the careers. The findings could help to know about the factors that affecting by female engineering students in terms of pursuing academic degrees in higher education and in careers.

Keywords: Female Engineering Student, Factors, Careers, Frameworks.

1. Introduction Education can provide a framework for an individual and can learn and gain the knowledge. Higher education plays a crucial role for the growth and development of human resource that can take the responsibility for the social, economical and for the scientific development of the country [14]. In higher education, the engineering students demonstrate the high cholesterol level as compared to the other students’ and female students reported that they are more stressed as compared to their counterparts [8] because of the responses [22]. According to [21], technical education has become more important for students because of the availability of the employment opportunity, availability of the more specialization, choices the criteria availability for entering the industries, and growth of the professionalism etc. [20] stated that engineering education considers to process the most important engineering concept and the broad theoretical knowledge with the practical skills to produce the engineering graduates basically who can play a significant role in terms of assisting to shape the future technological society of the nation. According to [11], engineering is the field that can help to change the society and determine the nature of the work to be done for the society through design and construction in which we live and use day to day. According to [12], female engineering students usually receive very good support from the counselors in pursuing their nontraditional interest. [6] Indicated that the idea of a female engineering student may experience some conflict between their role as a female and their role as a student in the traditional Dr Sujit Kumar Basak, IJRIT-215

IJRIT International Journal of Research in Information Technology, Volume 3, Issue 4, April 2015, Pg. 215-222

masculine field needs to be explored. [10] Found that the female engineering students usually did not view the engineering exclusively masculine, and saw themselves to take on the role of the engineer without any personal conflict. According to [19], female engineering students choosing the careers that were the nontraditional for women and they did not see as the implying their careers which were exclusive of other commitments. Furthermore, female engineering students see it as a different from the traditionally oriented women.

2. Problem Statement According to [25], female engineering graduates are low as compared to the non-engineering fields. He or she also indicated that in the [25] during 1980 to 2009 the female engineering students were up to 3% of the total university graduates. The overall rate of female enrolment in engineering students in the United Arab Emirates remains very low. According to [6], in Canada only 12% full-time undergraduates were female in the engineering and applied sciences. According to [24], the female engineering students usually thought to be less friendly, less attractive, less flexible, and to have poorer sense of humor as compared to their female liberal arts students. [16] And [18] reported that the female engineering students acknowledge that they need to deal with a conflict between work and family and furthermore this conflict is concerned to them. Studies by [2] and [4] indicated from their research and found that female engineers have different problems where 34% women indicated that considering the balance work and family, the presence of a glass ceiling, the old boy network, and outright discrimination as their biggest obstacles. A study by [17] indicated that usually the higher education dominated by male teachers and in this relation female student usually hesitate to communicate with their lecturers or professor.

3. Research Question The research question of this study was: what are the factors that affect female engineering students to pursue their academic degrees in higher education and in careers?

4. Aims and Objectives The aim of this study was to identify the factors that influence female engineering students in terms of pursuing academic qualifications and careers. This aim is achieved through the specific objectives: to identify the factors that affect female engineering students to pursue academic degrees and in careers; to test the relationship of each other of these factors; to examine the activities and strategies that can take in order to improve the factors to pursue academic degrees and in careers of female engineering students.

5. Literature Review 5.1 Pursue Academic Degree [23] Conducted a study on 200 students and found the critical factors that teachers’ discourage to female students in terms of industrial trip and lack of class test. Another study was conducted by [23] conducted on female engineering students and their results showed that the following factors affect female engineering students and these factors are listed as follows: tension due to examination; lack of freedom in male dominated environment; difficulty in handling technical courses; disliking studies; family discouragement Dr Sujit Kumar Basak, IJRIT-216

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for engineering education; un-certain future due to social restrictions; hesitation of parents for dormitory life; burden of home responsibilities; non-availability of girls hostel; lack of attention from teachers in the class; difficulty in interaction with teachers; difficulty in communication with male students; noncooperative attitude of male class fellows; lower ration of female students; less opportunity of field exposure; difficulty in having group studies; difficulty in traveling; non-cooperation among female students; financial problems. A study conducted by [3] indicated that at least 25% of the female undergraduate persist in engineering and science programs and cited “lack of self-confidence”. Another study conducted by [1] indicated that freshman female engineering students get lower confidence in terms of their basic knowledge and skills, problem-solving abilities as compared to their male engineering counterparts. [9], indicated that low number of women entering engineering believed that basically women did not consider the engineering as an option because of the lower levels of the performance in mathematics and science courses in high schools, discouragement by parents, teachers, counselors and friends, a lack of female role models, and a masculine stereotype associated with in the engineering profession. A study was conducted by [28] on the factors relating to persistence of women in the engineering and found that one reason women usually gave up to completing the degree in engineering is financial concerns as compared to their male counterparts. A study conducted by Ott (1975) found that the female students are more usually depends on their male friends or peers for the support or advice. A study conducted by [3] identified that the barriers to women to engineering studies includes: lack of self-confidence; feeling intimidated or isolated; financial problems; lack of interest.

5.2 Careers Profession [13] reported that young girls or women get the following factors which affect to them and these factors are as follows: the stereotyping of the engineering profession as male dominated; the biases of caregivers/careers advisors who discourage girls and women from becoming engineers; girls and young women’s perceptions of their abilities; the culture in tertiary institutions (including schools of engineering); and the culture in the engineering profession. A study conducted by [7] using a questionnaire based survey on the female engineering students and his or her results indicated that mothers or other women had discouraged or had tried to dissuade first year students from entering engineering. A study conducted by [15] on the female engineers found that women’s assumptions of the sex role stereotyping were positively to the tension at the work. A study conducted by [26] suggested that women can find it easy to leave the high prestige job or high paying job male areas because of the marriage or the lower status of the employment that usually have less stress.

6. Methodology The main strategy of this research designed to identify factors that affect the female engineering students in terms of pursuing academic degrees and to careers. The identification was drawn from existing literature and the results of this paper were drawn by compiling the factors affecting for the academic degrees and careers of the female engineering students. A systematic review process [5] was done with the following steps: Formulate the review question/s, devising the search strategy, application of study selection criteria, study design, and the quality appraisal.

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6.1 Formulate the Review Question Formulation of the question was addressed by a systematic review that question provides the focus and boundaries, shapes all aspects of the review process: inclusion and exclusion criteria, search strategy, amount of the literature reviewed, quality appraisal, and the synthesis of the evidence [27]. This review examined the evidence that contributes to answering the following question: What are the factors that affect to pursue academic degrees and careers by female engineering students?

6.2 Devising the Search Strategy Search strategy was comprehensive and was related to the review question such as factors affecting engineering education; factors affecting engineering students; factors affecting engineering students satisfaction; engineering students satisfaction factors; factors affecting girls and boys engineering students; factors affecting male engineering students’ employment careers; and engineering students factors.

6.3 Application of Study Selection Criteria Before studying entered into the systematic review, two filters were subjected namely first filter and the second filter. The first filter – comprising the set of inclusion and exclusion criteria that only relevant and able to address the review question is taken through the second filter [27].

6.4 Study Design Studies included empirical evidence from the experimental or observational research, including the qualitative research. The study also includes published or unpublished work [27]. In this article, only selected those are directly associated with factors that affect the female engineering students for pursuing academic degrees and in careers.

6.5 The Quality Appraisal Included study met all the five essential elements of the quality appraisal criteria [27], source: [5] for the validity and trustworthiness findings. Articles were selected which were strongly considerable, acceptable, reliable and the empirically valid. Furthermore, it was considered to each study had the good research questions and theory, model or theoretical framework.

7. Results Frameworks show that there are several factors that affect female engineering students to pursue their academic degrees and in careers. Female engineering students affected during their industrial strip and for them the very less opportunity of field exposure and finally, it is very difficult for the female engineering students to travel. They also face a lot of financial problems during their studies and most of the time they suffer from the different types of restrictions such as lack of freedom in male dominate environment, family discouragement for engineering education, un-certain future due to social restriction. Female engineering students face accommodation problems that include hesitation of parents for dormitory life, burden of home responsibilities, nonavailability of girls hostel. During the higher education, female engineering students get academic challenges such as tension due to examination, disliking studies, lack of attention from teachers in the class, non-cooperation among female students, difficult to handling technical courses, difficulty in interaction with teachers, difficulty in Dr Sujit Kumar Basak, IJRIT-218

IJRIT International Journal of Research in Information Technology, Volume 3, Issue 4, April 2015, Pg. 215-222

communication with male students, difficulty in having group students, and lower ratio female students. Apart from the above challenges female engineering students also meet some other challenges that include lack of self-confidence and lack of interest. The results of this study are displayed in Figure 1 and Figure 2.

The results of this study are displayed in Figure 1 and Figure 2. Travelling • Industrial trip • Less opportunity of field exposure • Difficulty in travelling Monetary • Financial problems

Restriction

• Lack of freedom in male dominate environment

• Family discouragement for engineering education

• Un-certain future due to social restriction

Accommodation

• Hesitation of parents for dormitory life • Burden of home responsibilities • Non-availability of girls hostel

Factors Affecting Female Engineering Students to Pursue Academic Degrees

Academics • Tension due to examination+ • Disliking studies • Lack of attention from teachers in the class • Non-cooperation among female students • Difficult to handling technical courses • Difficulty in interaction with teachers • Difficulty in communication with male students • Difficulty in having group • Lower ratio female students

Others • Lack of self-confidence • Lack of interest

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IJRIT International Journal of Research in Information Technology, Volume 3, Issue 4, April 2015, Pg. 215-222

Fig. 1 A Proposed conceptual framework on the factors affecting female engineering students to pursue academic degrees in higher education Figure 2 show that the following factors that affect female engineering student in their careers. These factors are followed by balance work and family, outright discrimination, stereotyping (sex role, stereotyping), culture, marriage, lower status, the presence of a glass ceiling and the old boy network. And finally, it has also clearly shown that there is no correlation between academic pursuing factors and careers factors by female engineering students.

Balance work and family

Outright discrimination

Stereotyping (sex role stereotyping)

Culture

Factors Affecting Male Engineering into Careers

Marriage

Lower status

Others • Presence of a glass ceiling • The old by network

Fig. 2 A Proposed conceptual framework on the factors affecting male engineering into careers

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8. Discussion, Conclusion and Recommendations The main objective of the study was to examine the factors affecting female engineering students to pursue academic degrees in higher education and in careers. This study has revealed that, all these factors affecting female engineering students to pursue academic degrees in higher education and in the careers. Regardless of what theory is used travelling, monetary, freedom, accommodation, academics and others (see figure 1) are the factors that affect female engineering students to purse their academic degrees. And in the careers balance work and family, outright discrimination, stereotyping (sex role stereotyping), culture, marriage, lower status, others (presence of a glass ceiling, the old boy network) are the factors (see figure 2) that affect female engineers to their careers.

Lastly, this study, however, recommends female engineering students should endeavour to know what factors that affect them for the academic degree pursue and careers. However, this study will help female engineering students to know their factors that usually affect during the pursuing education and careers.

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