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The underrepresentation of women in the engineering element of STEM occupations and influencers contributing to the persistent gap
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The underrepresentation of women in the engineering element of STEM occupations and influencers contributing to the persistent gap
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Running Head: UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING
The Underrepresentation of Women in the Engineering Element of STEM Occupations and
Influencers Contributing to the Persistent Gap
by
David Holl
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
December 2017
Copyright 2017 David E. Holl
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 2
Dedication
This dissertation is dedicated to my children Madison-Leigh and Nicolas. You both
inspired me to be a better person and father. Having always emphasized the importance of
education to you, I felt the desire to lead through example and pursue my own growth to the
highest level possible. Whenever I felt my motivation slipping, thinking of you both refilled my
tank and made it easier to keep pressing toward the goal. You are both a blessing that I am most
grateful for.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 3
Table of Contents
List of Tables 7
List of Figures 8
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 11
History of Women in STEM 13
STEM Professions 13
Growth 13
Stagnation 14
Regression 14
Organizational Context 15
Organizational Performance Status 20
Importance of Addressing the Gap 21
Organizational Performance Goal 22
Conceptual and Methodological Framework 23
Description of Stakeholder Groups 24
Stakeholder Group Selected for the Project 25
Purpose of the Project and Related Questions 26
Organization of the Project 27
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 28
Education Attainment 28
STEM 28
Engineering 29
Gender Pay Gap 30
Equity 31
Gap Analysis Framework 33
Supervisor Knowledge and Motivation Influences 34
Knowledge 34
Knowledge types 34
Supervisor knowledge influences. 35
Declarative knowledge 35
Journey-level and senior-level engineers 35
Entry-level engineers 35
Attraction and retention 36
Hostility 37
Benefits 37
Procedural knowledge influences 37
Metacognitive knowledge influences 39
Motivation 39
Expectancy value theory 40
Supervisor ‘utility value’ and ‘attainment value’ perceptions 41
Self-efficacy theory 41
Supervisor self-efficacy 42
Organizational Barriers 42
Gender schemas and cognitive bias 43
Hiring practices 44
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 4
Diversity management 45
Family-friendly work policies 45
Mentors 46
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 48
Research Questions 48
Conceptual Framework 48
Participating Stakeholders 51
Survey Sampling Criterion and Rationale 51
Engineering supervisors 51
Experience 51
Survey Recruitment Strategy and Rationale 52
Interview Sampling Criterion and Rationale 53
Engineer supervisors 53
Female supervisors of engineers 53
Interview Recruitment Strategy and Rationale 54
Data Collection and Instrumentation 54
Surveys 54
Interviews 55
Data Analysis 59
Credibility and Trustworthiness 61
Ethics 61
CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND FINDINGS 65
Results and Findings 66
Survey Sampling: Supervisors 66
Interview Sampling: Supervisors 68
Survey Results 69
Knowledge 70
Declarative - Challenges 70
Motivation 72
Self-efficacy 72
Organizational 73
Turnover 73
Employment choice 74
No diversity management process 75
Lack of organizational emphasis 76
Women not reached by job vacancy notifications 78
Interview Results 80
Knowledge 81
Declarative (Factual) - Challenges 81
Declarative (Conceptual) - Women engineer benefits 82
Procedural - Locating and hiring women 82
Diversity management 83
Motivation 84
Utility value - Increasing representation not important 84
Organizational 85
Lack of emphasis and goals 85
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 5
Diversity management absent 85
Organizational desirability and turnover 86
Inaccessible family-friendly work policies 87
Women engineers uncomfortable 87
Cognitive bias and gender schema 88
Hostile culture 88
Hiring processes - Access to women 89
Competitive 89
Entry-level 90
Synthesis of Findings 92
Critical Knowledge Deficiencies 92
Procedural: Diversity management 92
Procedural: Locating and hiring women 93
Critical Motivation Deficiencies 93
Self-efficacy: confidence in locating and hiring women 93
Expectancy value: Organizational importance 94
Critical Organizational Deficiencies 94
Hiring process: not accessing women 94
Diversity management plan: non-existent 95
Family-friendly policies: access for women engineers 96
Choice (entry-level engineers): not attracted to organization 97
Hostile culture 97
Organizational emphasis and goals. 98
Summary 100
CHAPTER FIVE: RECOMMENDATIONS 101
Recommendations for Addressing Validated KMO Influences 101
Knowledge Component Overview 101
Knowledge Influences 102
Declarative knowledge. 102
Procedural knowledge. 103
Metacognitive knowledge 103
Motivation Component Overview 105
Motivation Influences 105
Self-efficacy 105
Expectancy value 106
Attainment value 107
Utility value 107
Goal theory 107
Organization Component Overview 109
Organizational Influences 111
Gender schemas and cognitive biases. 111
Hiring Practices 113
Family-friendly work policies 114
Mentors 115
Hostile work environment 115
Integrated Implementation and Evaluation Plan 118
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 6
Implementation and Evaluation Framework 118
Organizational Purpose, Need, and Expectations 119
Level 4: Results and Leading Indicators 120
Level 3: Behavior 122
Critical behaviors 122
Required drivers 123
Monitoring 124
Level 2: Learning 124
Learning goals 124
The program 125
Duration 126
Delivery Method 126
Components of learning 126
Level 1: Reaction 127
Evaluation Tools 128
Throughout and immediately following the training 128
Assessment delayed for a period after training 129
Executive leadership 129
Organization-wide 130
Global goal achievement 130
Limitations and Delimitations 130
Conclusion 131
References 133
APPENDIX A: Survey Items 141
APPENDIX B: Interview Protocol - Supervisors 147
APPENDIX C: Informed Consent/Information Sheet 149
APPENDIX D: Recruitment Letter 151
APPENDIX E: Supervisor Survey #1 152
APPENDIX F: Supervisor Survey #2 154
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 7
List of Tables
Table 1. Stakeholder group's performance goals 26
Table 2. STEM Bachelor’s Degrees Earned by Women in the U.S. 28
Table 3. Assumed Knowledge, Motivation, and Organizational (KMO) Influences 47
Table 4. KMO Assessment Approach 56
Table 5. Surveys: Supervisor sample (n=60) 66
Table 6. Interviews: Supervisor sample (n = 8) 69
Table 7. Summary of key KMO assumption findings 99
Table 8. Summary of Knowledge Influences and Recommendations 104
Table 9. Summary of Motivation Influences and Recommendations 108
Table 10. Summary of Organization Influences and Recommendations 116
Table 11. Outcomes, Metrics, and Methods for External and Internal Outcomes 121
Table 12. Critical Behaviors, Metrics, Methods, and Timing for Evaluation 122
Table 13. Required Drivers to Support Critical Behaviors 123
Table 14. Level 2 Components of Learning for the Training 127
Table 15. Components to Measure Reactions 128
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 8
List of Figures
Figure 1. Percentage of Women in STEM Professions 15
Figure 2. Racial representation (percentage) in WISE versus the U.S. 18
Figure 3. Racial representation (percentage) in WISE 19
Figure 4. Fraction of Bachelor's Degrees in STEM Disciplines Earned by Women 30
Figure 5. Average Hourly Earnings by Gender and Occupation 31
Figure 6. Representation of Women in Engineering in 2013 32
Figure 7. Conceptual Framework Diagram w/ Path of Influence 50
Figure 8. Sex diversity of survey respondents 67
Figure 9. Racial diversity of supervisor respondents 67
Figure 10. Highest level of educational achievement for supervisor respondents 68
Figure 11. Frequency of survey responses: Q20 71
Figure 12. Frequency of survey responses: Q14 72
Figure 13. Frequency of survey responses: Q19 73
Figure 14. Frequency of survey responses: Q10, Q11, and Q12 comparison 74
Figure 15. Frequency of survey responses: Q13 75
Figure 16. Frequency of survey responses: Q21 76
Figure 17. Frequency of survey responses: Q22 76
Figure 18. Frequency of survey responses: Q17 77
Figure 19. Frequency of survey responses: Q15 78
Figure 20. Frequency of survey responses: Q26 79
Figure 21. Frequency of survey responses: Q25 79
Figure 22. Survey and interview responses to hiring process’s access to women 95
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 9
Figure 23. Affirmative responses to a hostile work environment toward women engineers 98
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 10
Abstract
Within Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) careers fields, the
representation of women remains at an inequitable level when compared to men and to women’s
representation in other professions. Given the current state of women representing 52% of the
professional and management-related workforce (U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, 2015),
their representation at only 15% of employed engineers nationwide appears to be a problem.
When considering the fact that recent graduation data show women earn over 19% of Bachelor’s
degrees in engineering each year, the low number becomes increasingly puzzling. What factors
are contributing to this low number of women in engineering professions? One of the
contributing factors is clearly women’s choice of education and career paths. However,
empirical literature suggests, after pursuing and entering the engineer profession, women often
are victim to gender schema, cognitive bias, and an absence of family-friendly work policies, an
insufficient number of female mentors, social exclusion, and other drivers potentially leading to
their higher turnover rate compared to their male counterparts. This project looks within one
military-related organization to uncover reasons for the low representation of female engineers.
The combination of a mixed-methods approach to data collection and the Knowledge,
Motivation, and Organization (KMO) framework developed by Clark and Estes (2008) for
analysis is employed by this project. Comparison of the analysis results to widely accepted
learning and motivation principles presented in the reviewed literature led to a proposal of
research-based solutions to address the representation gap and ultimately increase women’s
representation in engineering and other STEM career fields.
Keywords: gender, women, STEM, bias, diversity
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 11
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
According to the most recent data from 2014, women represented 47% of the overall
national workforce in the U.S. and 52% of professional and management related occupations that
same year (U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics [BLS], 2015). However, women held only 24%
of all Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) occupations per the most
recent Department of Commerce report showing data from 2009 (U.S. Department of Commerce
[DOC], 2011) and increasing by only 29.5% in the years since. In 2009, women accounted for
only 14% of those in the field of engineering specifically, an increase of just 1% since 2000
(U.S. DOC, 2011). In the following four years, the number of women engineers increased by
only 0.8% to 14.8% for a total increase of 1.8% over the first 13 years of the 21
st
century
(National Science Foundation [NSF], 2013). Furthermore, data from NSF (2013) show that
women’s underrepresentation persists specifically in STEM professions such as engineering
(14.8%), physical science (30.8%), and computer science (24.1%) resulting in an equity gap for
those occupations.
During the last 40 years of the 20th century, the representation of women in STEM
professions has realized extraordinary increases in areas such as in biological sciences and
chemistry. However, other STEM elements have either increased representation and plateaued
prior to achieving equity or actually gone in the opposite direction and began decreasing toward
previous and inequitable levels of representation. While many of the STEM professions have
improved since more women began entering the workforce, other STEM elements remain
overrepresented by men, such as in engineering, physics, and computer science. Why is this
happening and why is it important?
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 12
Empirical literature, discussed further in Chapter 2, suggests the primary factors
contributing to the underrepresentation of women in male-dominated STEM professions, such as
engineering, are:
1. Women not pursuing education in particular STEM elements
2. Women earning a degree in engineering choosing to change career paths
3. Women experiencing low job satisfaction once in an engineering job
4. Workplace cognitive biases and gender schemas
5. Unfair and/or inadequate hiring practices
6. Sexual harassment and/or unfair treatment
7. Lack of women mentors
Additionally, the available literatures, also discussed in Chapter 2, suggest reasons for the
importance of addressing this underrepresentation may also include:
1. Given the relatively high pay involved with many STEM professions, the
underrepresentation of women in STEM contributes to the persistent gender pay gap in
the United States
2. From an equity perspective, women represent half the workforce in the U.S., thus their
representation in STEM professions should be comparable
3. At a minimum, representation in STEM professions should be commensurate with the
percentage of women earning degrees in those same fields of study
Compounding women’s underrepresentation are recent estimates reporting that the U.S. will
need an increased number of STEM professionals entering the workforce to meet future
engineering and computer science demands at upwards of 1.17 million over the next ten years
(American Association of University Women [AAUW], 2013). Increased employment of
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 13
women in less diverse STEM professions would help reduce the projected STEM personnel
shortage in the future and ultimately give women a larger presence within those STEM
occupations. Taking into consideration the nationwide underrepresentation of women in
particular STEM professions, more specifically within engineering, this project focuses on an
organization with a similar underrepresentation of women in engineering.
History of Women in STEM
STEM Professions
The representation of women in the overall STEM career path has increased since 1960
(Hill, Corbett, & St Rose 2010), when the representation of women in STEM was less than 10%,
but increased to 24% by 2000 where it stagnated and remained through 2009 (U.S. DoC, 2011).
Women’s representation once again experienced an increase of 5.5% in the following four years,
reaching 29.5% by 2013 (NSF, 2013). Notably, the representation of women in the STEM
elements of engineering and physics disciplines has not increased at the same rate as the other
elements. Figure 1 demonstrates the variations in the representation of women in various STEM
professions from 1960-2013, using data collected by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (U.S.
BLS, 2014).
Growth. In 2013, the population of women in professional fields such as biological
science (53%) and psychology (73.8%) demonstrates substantial growth since the 1960s (NSF,
2013; U.S. BLS, 2014), which ironically has resulted in an underrepresentation of men in
psychology professions. Some obvious questions result from this demonstrated growth in some
areas while others remain stagnant. Are the areas of growth a result of choice, opportunity,
acceptance, educational access, or some other factor? This project attempts to uncover possible
reasons for growth and stagnation in one organization.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 14
Stagnation. Across the U.S. in 1960, women represented 0.9% of the total engineering
workforce, with 3.4% in physics/astronomy, and 8.2% in chemistry professions (Hill et al., 2010;
U.S. AAUW, 2013; BLS, 2014). By the years 2013 and 2014, their representation in those same
areas was 14.8% (12%
1
with college professors removed), 13.9%, and 29.8% respectively
(AAUW, 2013; NSF, 2013; U.S. BLS, 2014, 2015). After the initial growth in those professions,
a period of stagnation occurred where women remain underrepresented with little growth in
recent years. This data begs the question; why is there stagnation in some STEM-related fields
while others have increased and continue to do so? If it is an issue of choice, then why do
women not want to work in these fields? Answers to these questions might also explain why
some STEM professions are actually not growing in the representation of women in them.
Regression. Making women’s underrepresentation in STEM worse, disciplines such as
Computer Science/Math, where representation climbed from 27% in 1960 up to 35% in 1990,
has since declined back down to 26% according to the data collected from 2013. This
percentage is lower than the level experienced in 1960 (Hill et al., 2010; U.S. BLS, 2014, U.S.
DoC, 2011). Assumed reasons for the low representation are similar to those affecting the
engineering element discussed in Chapter 2 and without addressing it, may continue on a
downward trajectory.
1
Lower number not used in this project due to education attainment required to work as college professor. This
allows for the comparison between engineering degree attainment and using the degree for their profession.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 15
Figure 1. Percentage of Women in STEM Professions – 2014 (U.S. BLS, 2014)
A natural and expected progression is to ask what the number of women earning college
degrees in STEM elements looks like from a representation perspective. Arguably, one could
proclaim the representation of any group in a particular profession depends primarily on the
number pursuing and attaining the related degree. While there is indeed a direct relationship
between education and career path, the relationship is not always a one-to-one comparison.
To obtain a better understanding of the factors contributing to the aforementioned
representation issue and follow up with recommendations for addressing the issue, this project
looks more closely into the organization I am employed at. Much like the conditions mentioned
previously, the organization receiving focus for this project is an engineering-focused
establishment with a low representation of women in engineering positions.
Organizational Context
The organization of focus, Warfare Intelligence Systems Engineering (WISE), exists
within the federal government segment of the U.S. public sector. To begin understanding the
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 16
entirety of the problem, this project begins by describing the context of WISE and composition
of its current workforce. The subject organization is located in the western region of the United
States and is a division of its parent organization, Weapons Defense Command (WDC)
2
. WISE
is one of nine WDC divisions across the United States and employs just over 2,000 civilian
employees with an additional 200 military personnel (WISE HRO, 2016). The organization
predominantly supports military defense systems with a mission developed specifically for their
role within the larger WDC mission framework.
While the representation of women in engineering across all portions of the federal
government in 2013 was 19.1% (NSF, 2013), the representation of women engineers at WISE
falls short at 14.6% (WISE HRO, 2016). While this exceeds representation in the private sector,
it trails representation in the federal government as a whole and is also below the percentage of
engineering bachelor’s degrees earned by women, which fluctuated between 18.0% and 20.6%
during the period between 1996 through 2015. Although WISE does not currently have a
specific plan to address this gap, executive leadership does acknowledge the importance of
addressing it and ensuring a diverse workforce. Executive leadership within the organization has
affirmed they are not willing to accept that supervisors and/or the current hiring process simply
cannot find women to fill open engineering positions. However, without an understanding of
what barriers are contributing to this persistent gap, it remains difficult to develop an appropriate
solution to address it.
The overarching organization, WDC, has a mission statement and strategic framework on
which WISE remains focused while fulfilling its own specifically tailored mission and vision.
WISE articulates its mission as the effort to flawlessly integrate, test, evaluate, and provide
2
WDC is a pseudonym for the actual overarching organization of WISE.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 17
engineering and logistics solutions for military systems it supports over the entire life of the
system (WISE HRO, 2016). There are as many as 35 different programs/systems (composed of
both weapon and non-weapon systems) WISE provides in-service engineering and/or logistics
support for across the military, including sea and shore-based locations. The logistics support
provided includes the integration of different systems, testing of new and old systems on the
various platforms, and providing other logistics support during the program or system’s entire
life cycle from acquisition through disposal, to maintain operational capabilities and carry out the
military missions without interruption.
The vision of WISE is to be the first choice for innovative engineering and logistics
solutions (WISE, 2016). This vision strives to provide warfighters with real-time access to
technical support and the ability to address issues quickly, develop solutions, and deliver value,
thus enabling continued operational capability for the military.
WISE has four strategic objectives as part of their organizational plan for 2014 – 2018
(WISE HRO, 2016):
1. Improve combat readiness
2. Advance development and deployment of capabilities to the warfighter
3. Improve total ownership cost of combat systems
4. Continue to build and shape the workforce
The various demographic measures of the current workforce within the organization
reflect high diversification specific to overall race and sex composition in comparable
organizations and the overall population of the United States. As seen in Figure 2, recent data
from 2015 census estimates show racial diversity of the employee population at WISE compared
to the national resident population as the following (WISE vs. US): African-American (7.4% vs
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 18
13.3%), Asian-American (18.6% vs 5.8%), Hispanic-American (15.9% vs 17.6%), and
European-American
3
(55.5% vs 61.6%) (WISE HRO, 2016; U.S. Census, 2016).
Figure 2. Racial representation (percentage) in WISE versus the U.S. (U.S. Census, 2016;
WISE HRO, 2016)
A comparison of the organization’s workforce to their affiliate locations across the U.S.
show WISE has achieved greater diversity rates for both race and sex representation. Female
representation at WISE in 2016 was 26% of the overall workforce compared to the 25% average
across all WDC member organizations (WISE HRO, 2016). Furthermore, WISE is more racially
diverse specific to Hispanic-Americans, with a representation of 16%, contrasted with the WDC
average of 5.4% (WISE HRO, 2016) as demonstrated in Figure 3. The African-American
representation is also higher at 7.4% within the organization in comparison to the 6.8% average
across the other WDC member organizations (WISE HRO, 2016).
3
Represents the race traditionally known as “white” or “Caucasian.” This provides consistency in naming
conventions and avoids referring to any race by a color.
61.6%
13.3%
5.8%
17.6%
55.5%
7.4%
18.6%
15.9%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
European-American African-American Asian-American Hispanic-American
Percentage of Population
U.S. Population WISE
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 19
Figure 3. Racial representation (percentage) in WISE versus their overarching organization,
WDC. (WISE HRO, 2016)
This diverse workforce population results in European-American (non-Hispanic)
representation just over 55% at WISE, while the average across WDC remains at 79% according
to the most recent HR data available at the time of this project (WISE HRO, 2016). WISE’s
diversity achievements are due in part to its location in the western region of the United States
with a higher Hispanic-American population and with ongoing government policies successfully
prioritizing racial diversity at federal agencies. This focus on diversity creates more career
advancement opportunities for historically underrepresented racial groups. Age representation at
WISE in 2016 is disparate, with 50% of the current workforce comprised of individuals 50 years
of age and older (WISE HRO, 2016). The organization’s ability to focus on and achieve racial
diversity coupled with the current number of women earning engineering degrees on an annual
basis (nearly 20% of engineering graduates) makes it disconcerting that women remain
underrepresented in the engineering career field, comprising only 15% of the organization’s
engineers.
75.0%
6.7% 7.0%
5.4%
55.5%
7.4%
18.6%
15.9%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
European-American African-American Asian-American Hispanic-American
Percentage of Population
NDC WISE
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 20
The overall number of women within the WISE workforce, looking across all
professions, had been on an upward trend until 2005 when the overall female representation
plateaued (WISE HRO, 2016). In 2016, the HR department was investigating this phenomenon
and looking for solutions to increase representation of women, and more specifically in
engineering, management, and various other areas across the organization where
underrepresentation is more prevalent (WISE HRO, 2016). Over the more than 50-year history
of the organization, the predominant race and sex composition of the workforce has been
European-American (non-Hispanic) males. This demographic was also prevalent across the U.S.
through the end of the 20th century, with recent years seeing a dramatic shift toward increased
racial diversity. WISE’s race and sex diversity over the last ten years has been above the levels
observed across the majority of their affiliate locations across the U.S. In 2016, the distribution
of professions for personnel at WISE consisted of approximately 43% (904) engineers with the
remaining 57% in administrative/technical, management, financial, contracts, and other
occupational classifications. Given the relatively high number of engineers in the organization
and marked diversity in categories such as race, the question remains as why representation for
women in the engineering profession is currently at 15%.
Organizational Performance Status
From a results-oriented customer service perspective, WISE is successfully achieving its
mission and vision related to the warfighter needs and ensuring the organization is fulfilling its
many system’s support requirements. However, from an equity perspective, the organization has
an obligation to ensure a diverse workforce in all categories such as sex/gender, race, religion,
work experience, and education that is reflective of the national and local workforce population.
Moreover, with roughly 20% of bachelor’s degrees in engineering awarded to women over the
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 21
past 19 years, the number of women represented in engineering at WISE should arguably be
equal to or greater than the annual percentage of engineering degrees awarded to women. From
these two perspectives, the WISE organization falls short of achieving adequate diversity
specific to the level of representation for women in the engineering profession.
Importance of Addressing the Gap
The gap in the representation of women in the engineering element of STEM is important
to address for several reasons. From an equity perspective for underrepresented groups, the
STEM profession composition should be reflective of the resident demographics across the
United States and the national and/or regional labor force to allow access to these prestigious and
high-paying career fields. Research also shows that increasing diversity leads to increased
performance, innovative idea development, and successfully achieving goals (Choi, 2011; Foldy,
2004), in this context, high-quality engineering and effective logistics solutions.
As previously mentioned, women represent nearly half of the current workforce in the
U.S., yet in 2012 accounted for less than 14.8% of engineers across the country (NSF, 2013).
With the percentage of women engineers near 15%, the organization is proximate to the private
sector average, but below the overall federal government average of 19.1% (WISE HRO, 2016;
NSF, 2013) and the engineering degree attainment rate for women at 19-20%. The
representation of women engineers across the federal government is more four to five percent
higher than both WISE and the private sector (both of which are under recent graduation rates in
engineering as well). To address this issue effectively, it is imperative to understand the barriers
potentially preventing increased female representation in the private and public sectors, including
within the subject organization itself.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 22
Organizational Performance Goal
WISE does not currently have specific performance goals established specifically for
supporting the overall mission of the organization. Given that the organization primarily
provides engineering design and logistics services, measuring success objectively can sometimes
be difficult. Considering the overall vision to be the first choice for innovative engineering and
logistics solutions, the organization can benefit from employing diverse individuals with unique
backgrounds, perspectives, and styles.
Addressing the organizational goal of equitable representation among male and female
engineers requires understanding why the current number of women engineers was at 15% in
2016. Establishing a short-term goal to increase female engineer representation by a minimum
of 5% by September 2018 is aggressive and leaves a sizeable equity gap, but will bring women’s
representation slightly above recent engineer graduation rates. Adding a long-term goal of
reaching increased parity between male and female engineers at WISE within a three to five-year
timeframe, while also aggressive, may be possible dependent upon an effective approach to
correcting this equity issue. An additional and equally critical goal requires 100% of supervisors
to understand the processes for accessing, hiring, and retaining diverse personnel, specifically
women engineers in this situation. The retention of these women is critical for sustaining long-
term success at increasing the representation of women in the engineering profession. Hiring
more women without addressing the available research findings of why women leave
organizations will bring neither the initial change nor sustainment of any related change. To
begin addressing the issue and bring about change, this project establishes a framework for
identifying and understanding what barriers are preventing the equity of women in engineering.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 23
Conceptual and Methodological Framework
Approaching a problem to gain an understanding of the causes requires a sound concept
and framework to provide structure, thus facilitating the generation of appropriate solutions
capable of correcting the problems. Chosen to guide this project is the gap analysis methodology
developed by Clark and Estes (2008), one of the numerous frameworks available, and providing
a systematic and analytical approach for addressing organizational performance gaps. This
approach was chosen based on the potential and probability for knowledge, motivation, and/or
organizational barriers existing within the subject organization assumed to be contributing to the
performance gap. Within this context, the term “performance gap” refers to the disparity
between the number of men contrasted with the number of women currently in engineering
positions within the organization. This gap contributes to inequitable gender diversity and a
reduction in opportunities for women to reach top-level leadership positions in engineering
branches and departments. This is due primarily to WISE being predominantly an engineering
organization, thus they require supervisors and managers that oversee engineers to have an
educational background in engineering themselves. The Clark and Estes model describes an
appropriate methodological framework for identifying the probable issues specific to knowledge,
motivation, and/or organizational barriers. If the collected data demonstrates these influencers
are indeed causal to the organization’s performance gap, appropriate research-based solutions for
addressing the gap can be proposed (Clark & Estes, 2008). Results from this project may prove
beneficial to the subject organization specific to increasing their engineering diversity while
maintaining the mission and vision of the organization. Attempting to validate the assumptions
includes using recent empirical literature, surveys of the engineering supervisors, and supervisor
interviews followed by thorough data analysis for trend identification. A mixed-methods
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 24
approach provides a comprehensive approach for evaluation and the ensuing recommendations
for research-based solutions (Clark & Estes, 2008). As such, this project employs two primary
data collection methods involving the combination of online surveys and in-person interviews
with purposefully selected supervisors.
Description of Stakeholder Groups
Multiple stakeholders within the organization potentially contribute to and benefit from
achievement of the organizational mission and goals. The first of these stakeholders is the
executive leadership consisting of top-level managers from the CEO down to the department and
staff code managers. A department manager oversees each one of the four departments at WISE
that employ roughly 90% of the personnel in the organization. Additional high-level managers
consist of the division managers, technical directors, HR director, corporate operations manager,
and comptroller. These individuals provide leadership and are responsible for ensuring the
supervisors in their departments are aware of requirements and processes for hiring individuals
to fill open positions within their respective branches/areas. All personnel benefit from
supervisors hiring only the most qualified individuals to help the organization achieve its
mission, goals, and high-quality support for the warfighter. Failure to meet the overarching
organizational mission could ultimately result in work tasking removal from the organization,
ending with removal of vital funding and potentially the loss of jobs.
The second major stakeholder group consists of the employees at WISE, comprised of
technical personnel in the fields of logistics, engineering (primarily electronic, but including
mechanical, civil, electrical, and software engineers), contract specialists, supply personnel,
financial personnel, and various others. These employees are the primary individuals completing
the day-to-day work supporting the organization’s mission.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 25
The third and last stakeholder group consists of the branch supervisors charged with the
daily execution of job tasking functions related to specific programs within their respective
branches. In addition to daily work execution, supervisors must have the ability to provide
effective leadership and ensure their employees have required resources and receive necessary
training to carry out their duties efficiently and effectively. Branch sizes typically range from 15
to 25 employees and are primarily technical in nature, whether it is a STEM discipline or in
another career field.
Branch supervisors are also responsible for hiring individuals with the necessary
knowledge, technical skills, and abilities required to fill open positions effectively. This tasking
includes identifying the position’s requirements, assembling the hiring package detailing those
requirements, and submitting to Human Resources (HR) to validate completion and advertise the
position. After receiving a list of qualified candidates from HR upon expiration of the
advertisement, the supervisor then conducts interviews and selects a candidate for the position
based upon demonstrated knowledge, skills, abilities, and merit (WISE HRO, 2016).
Stakeholder Group Selected for the Project
Branch supervisors are the stakeholder of focus for this project primarily because of their
responsibility for the hiring and management of employees within their respective branches, but
also because of their daily interactions with their employees, which allows them to observe any
adverse behaviors that may be contributing to any turnover issues. This daily interaction also
means supervisors have the greatest impact on the environment within their branch, whether it be
in a positive aspect or otherwise.
Specific goals have been established and identified in Table 1 to assist with global goal
attainment and implementation of sustainable solutions to address the performance gap. The
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 26
proposed supervisor goal is hiring a minimum of one qualified female engineer within their
respective branch by September 2018. Supervisors must also clearly demonstrate their
understanding of procedures for hiring engineers to meet future requirements and for managing
diversity, specifically retaining women engineers in their branch. If the gender equity gap is not
addressed at the supervisor level, achievement of the organizational goal to increase women’s
representation in engineering within a three to five-year timeframe will likely fail. With that
assumption in mind, the branch supervisor has a vital role in achievement of the global and long-
term goals.
Table 1
Stakeholder group's performance goals
Organizational Mission
Integrate, test, evaluate, and provide life-cycle engineering and logistics for today’s and
tomorrow’s military systems.
Organizational Global Goal
By September 2018, WISE will increase the representation of female engineers within the
organization by 5%.
Management
(Branch Supervisors)
Human Resources (HR) Executive Leadership
Increase and maintain the
branch’s representation of
women in engineering positions
to a minimum of 20%.
Improve the hiring process to
reach more women for open
engineering positions.
Provide support and
incentives to the supervisors
for hiring more women.
Purpose of the Project and Related Questions
The purpose of this project is to conduct an analysis of the data collected from surveys
and interviews to validate the existence of factors contributing to the underrepresentation of
female engineers at WISE. The analysis begins with generating assumed influencers, gathering
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 27
data, and conducting a systematic approach for analysis and solution recommendations. While a
more robust analysis could ideally focus on all stakeholders, for practical purposes the
stakeholder receiving focus is the branch supervisor within the organization. The questions
guiding this gap analysis to identify validated causes and solutions are as follows:
1. What are the knowledge, motivation, and/or organizational barriers preventing WISE
from successfully increasing the representation of women in engineering from 15% to
20%?
2. What are some recommended solutions to increase the representation of women
engineers within the WISE organization?
Organization of the Project
This project’s structure consists of five chapters to explore critical aspects of the
identified gap within WISE with the final chapter offering recommendations for removing the
barriers preventing women from entering the engineering profession within the organization.
This chapter began with an introduction to the gap and the importance of addressing it. In the
following chapter, an exploration of recent literature illustrates the inequitable number of women
in particular STEM careers and the various barriers that may be allowing the problem to persist.
Chapter 3 presents a description of the methodology used for the research component of the
project, including the research structure and rationale for choosing it. In chapter 4, themes of the
research project are presented along with interpretation of the collected data. Lastly, chapter five
discusses the findings, areas requiring additional exploration, and conclusions of the project
along with associated recommendations for WISE to consider implementing.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 28
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
The following chapter outlines literature regarding the status and implications of gender
diversity in STEM professions. The chapter begins with STEM education attainment for women
in the U.S. and influences on the gender pay gap. Following is a discussion of literature
pertaining to women’s representation and the factors preventing women from having a larger
presence in male-dominated STEM professions specifically, such as the “Leaky Pipeline” theory
(Miller & Wai, 2015; Riegle-Crumb & King 2010). The chapter then ends with a discussion of
women in STEM using the learning and motivation literature specific to the Clark and Estes
(2008) KMO gap analysis approach to uncover potential knowledge, motivation, or
organizational barriers preventing workforce permeation and sustainment of women in the
engineering profession.
Education Attainment
STEM. A reflection of graduation rates over time for STEM-related fields is in Table 2.
These rates demonstrate the increase over time for several STEM bachelor’s degrees for women,
most notably in chemistry, shifting from 18.5% in 1966 to 47.7% by 2013 and in earth science,
which substantially increased from 0.1% to 38.8% in the same timeframe (NSF, 2013). The
STEM education fields of engineering and physics however, have remained stagnant, with
women’s representation in 2013 at 19.3% and 19.5% respectively for bachelor’s degree
attainment in those disciplines.
Table 2
STEM Bachelor’s Degrees Earned by Women in the U.S. (percentage) (NSF, 2013)
Bachelor’s Degrees (%) 1966 1990 2013
% Change
(1966-2013)
Engineering 0.4 15.4 19.3 +18.9
Chemistry 18.5 40.1 47.7 +29.2
Biology 31.2 51.0 59.1 +27.9
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 29
Physics 0.1 16.1 19.5 +19.4
Earth Science 0.1 29.0 38.8 +38.7
STEM Total 16.7 28.6 36.1 +19.4
Engineering. Looking at engineering specifically, exploration of the gap started with
looking at education attainment figures showing, in addition to the 19.3% of Bachelor’s degrees
earned by women for the engineering discipline in 2013, they earned 22.9% of Master’s degrees
and 22.6% of Doctorates in engineering that same year (NSF, 2013). All three of these
attainment rates are above the representation level of women engineers in the U.S. workforce
through 2013 at 14.8% (NSF, 2013). Bachelor’s degrees in engineering earned by women
peaked at an all-time high in the U.S. at 21% in 2002, decreasing to 18% by 2009, and
rebounding during the following four years, reaching 19.33% in 2013 (NSF, 2013). Figure 4
illustrates the increase in STEM and engineering degree attainment for women over the period
spanning 1966-2013. However, note the two lines have a very similar shape, but engineering
degree attainment lags STEM by roughly 16% each year (U.S. DoC, 2011; NSF, 2013).
One of the primary questions this project attempted to answer is, if women are earning
nearly 20% of all bachelor’s degrees in engineering every year since 1998, then why is women’s
representation in engineering professions 5% less than earned undergraduate degrees and nearly
8% less than earned graduate degrees in the field?
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 30
Figure 4. Fraction of Bachelor's Degrees in STEM Disciplines Earned by Women (NSF, 2013)
Gender Pay Gap
The second reason for the importance of addressing this gap is several studies suggesting
the underrepresentation of women in STEM careers contributes to a large part of the persistent
earnings gap between men and women (U.S. DoC, 2011). Women in STEM occupations earn up
to 33% more than women in non-STEM occupations and STEM occupations provide higher
salaries later in one’s career (U.S. DoC, 2011). Data from the U.S. DoC (2011) also shows that
the gender wage gap was smaller in 2009 for STEM professions (14%) than the gap in non-
STEM professions (21%), as shown in Figure 5.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 31
Figure 5. Average Hourly Earnings by Gender and Occupation (U.S. DoC, 2011)
Additionally, the U.S. DoC (2011) suggests women with a STEM degree earn an average
of 9% more than women earn with a degree in a non-STEM discipline. Based on this data,
increasing women’s representation in STEM-related professions may lead to substantial
narrowing of the gender pay gap, an established concern across the country (U.S. DoC, 2011).
Equity
Research such as Choi (2011) suggests a more diverse workforce provides benefits to an
organization, ultimately increasing organizational performance. Arguably more important than
increased performance is the equity consideration associated with the fact women account for
nearly half of the workforce across the United States (U.S. BLS, 2015), yet they are
underrepresented in historically male-dominated STEM professions. In contradiction to many
commonly held gender schemas and cognitive biases, research findings show women are equally
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 32
capable as men are to contribute positively and succeed in all STEM-related careers regardless of
the professional or organizational setting (Hill et al., 2010).
Data from the NSF show a higher representation of women engineers in the federal
government in comparison to organizations in the private sector. In 2013, women represented
19.1% of the engineers across all sectors of the federal government, but women’s representation
in the private sector that same year lagged behind at 13.6% (NSF, 2013), as illustrated in Figure
6. While this higher percentage is a positive milestone for federal organizations, there remains
room for improvement to ensure fair treatment in the workplace and an equitable and diverse
workforce reflective of the nation’s population and labor force.
Figure 6. Representation of Women in Engineering in 2013 (NSF, 2013)
A substantial amount of empirical literature exists describing various reasons for the low
number of female engineers in the public and private sectors, starting with education attainment
and the “Leaky Pipeline” theory (Miller & Wai, 2015; Riegle-Crumb & King 2010). This theory
suggests females leave certain STEM “pipelines” or career paths because of influences
regarding: 1) the messages females receive during childhood regarding engineering
appropriateness for girls, 2) reasons why girls with potential in the field do not pursue it, 3)
19.3%
13.6%
19.1%
15%
0
5
10
15
20
25
Bachelor's Degrees Private Sector Federal Gov't WISE
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 33
higher education attainment, and, 4) influencers for women leaving careers in engineering.
Observations of women leaving the field of engineering at different points along this “Pipeline”
from the premise of the theory and attempt to explain the low representation (Miller & Wai,
2015). Beyond the disparity in education attainment data, literature points to causes for turnover
such as workplace bias, gender and sex schemas, unfair or ineffective hiring practices, and
retention issues due to various difficulties women face in the workplace, which can all
potentially contribute to the underrepresentation of females in engineering (Glass & Minnotte,
2010; McGuire, 2000). A lack of female role models, isolation from peers, differences in
communication styles, exclusion from informal networks, and work and home life balance issues
have all been observed contributors to higher turnover rates for female engineers (Congressional
Commission on the Advancement of Women and Minorities in Science, Engineering and
Technology Development [CAWMSET], 2000; Diekman, Weisgram, & Belanger, 2015; Hunt,
2015).
While understanding education attainment is a valid factor contributing to the
underrepresentation of women in STEM disciplines, this project does not explore this, but
instead focuses on what happens after education attainment in the form of organizational barriers
contributing to the gap and ways to increase representation by reducing turnover after degree
completion. The Clark and Estes (2008) Gap Analysis Framework assisted with the approach for
assessment of the barriers creating the equity gap.
Gap Analysis Framework
Clark and Estes’ (2008) suggest three dimensions contribute to organizational
performance gaps consisting of knowledge, motivation, and organizational barriers. The
following section discusses the general research about motivation and knowledge influencers
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 34
that can contribute to organizational performance gaps. Application of these knowledge and
motivation influencers to supervisors may explain possible barriers preventing the hiring and
retention of female engineers within WISE specifically. These same barriers to more women
representation in the workplace may also prove applicable to other organizations in all sectors
across the U.S.
Supervisor Knowledge and Motivation Influences
Knowledge
Existing empirical research supports assumptions that the supervisor's lack of knowledge
regarding recruiting and retaining qualified female engineers within their branch or department
may contribute to women’s underrepresentation within the organization. Before addressing
assumed knowledge gaps influencing the underrepresentation of women in engineering fields,
this chapter discusses the recent literature specific to research-supported knowledge gaps.
Knowledge types. The four knowledge types, divided into three descriptive categories,
consist of factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive knowledge types that may create
barriers to achieving organizational performance objectives (Bloom, Engelhart, Furst, Hill, &
Krathwohl, 1956; Krathwohl, 2002).
Definitions of the four knowledge types are:
1) Declarative - Factual: an understanding of the discrete elements of content and;
Conceptual: the organized and complex knowledge of things
2) Procedural - how to complete a specific process
3) Metacognitive - awareness of one’s own ability to understand a task and its processes
Attempting to isolate the potential knowledge barriers influencing social behaviors within an
organization or any social setting, requires understanding appropriate categorization into one of
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 35
the aforementioned knowledge types. Validating the existence of knowledge barriers and
understanding which types are involved is important to accurately identify and propose adequate
solutions to the barrier(s).
Supervisor knowledge influences.
Recent literature provides insight into potential factors preventing the individual and
collective knowledge necessary for goal attainment. Discussion of the literature in this case
pertains to knowledge of hiring and retention practices within the organization. These
knowledge influencers are separated into declarative (factual and conceptual), procedural, and
metacognitive knowledge that may contribute to the overall construct of knowledge.
Declarative knowledge. WISE, including the private sector and other federal
government agencies, faces challenges in locating, hiring, and retaining female engineers (WISE
HRO, 2016; NSF, 2013; U.S. DOC, 2011). When considering making the organization a place
that women want to work, supervisors may not know what conditions are attractive to women
engineers that would make them want to work in the organization.
Journey-level and senior-level engineers. Reasons for the difficulty getting women to
apply for jobs may be the organization’s general unawareness that job vacancy notifications are
failing to reach a sufficient amount of women currently seeking engineering positions (Glass &
Minnotte, 2010; McGuire, 2000). If job advertisements are not reaching women, they will not
apply for open engineering positions and it will prove impossible to increase representation.
Entry-level engineers. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) released results
from a study they conducted in 2015 suggesting many federal agencies are not utilizing all
approved hiring practices sufficiently or effectively to recruit young talent (OPM, 2015). Most
notably, the report showed the high-level organization that WISE is under, has not been utilizing
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 36
all available paths to bring in new talent to the organization. Without knowledge of and use of
all current hiring pathways, the organization may not be reaching enough recent women
engineering graduates seeking employment opportunities.
Attraction and retention. Deloitte (2005) conducted a survey of 1,396 human resource
practitioners in 60 different countries and discovered the most critical issue facing organizations
is the ability to attract new talent and retain the talent they do have. One aspect of this includes
attracting and retaining women in engineering, in addition to other underrepresented groups.
Two examples of options currently available to supervisors for attracting employees to WISE are
hiring bonuses for prospective employees and payment of relocation costs associated with
moving when required as a condition of acceptance for the position (WISE HRO, 2016).
Mastracci (2009) found in his study, when hiring incentives (e.g., bonuses and flexible work
schedules) were offered to potential Information Technology (IT) candidates in a private sector
company, there was a positive relationship observed with hiring qualified individuals.
Diekman, Weisgram, & Belanger (2015) suggest many supervisors and organizations are
also not aware a retention problem exists for their employees in the workplace. Methods to
retain women engineers may not always be as clear as attracting an employee to the organization.
Incentives such as pay increases and time off can be offered to retain an employee. However,
when the issues involved include a hostile work environment or low job satisfaction, those
incentives may not prove effective long-term in most cases. When retention problems arise and
turnover occurs, many times the culture within a work group must change to prevent further
turnover. This declarative knowledge is necessary to address retention issues properly.
When the representation of women increases, it becomes important to know how to
manage the diverse group of engineers. To ensure all supervisors manage diversity in the same
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 37
way, having a diversity management plan can assist doing so effectively. Additionally,
supervisors are more likely to increase diversity and implement diversity management practices
if they view diversity as important to the organization’s effectiveness and performance
(McClelland & Holland, 2015).
Hostility. Part of making the organization attractive for women to work at involves
understanding that the organizational culture may be hostile toward women in predominantly
male professions, which includes engineering. Taken from a study by Selden and Downey
(2012), hostility is defined in this project by the key characteristics of workplace hostility; the
target’s perception of hostility, persistence of the perpetrator, free will of the perpetrator, its non-
physical nature, and an organizational affiliation of both the victim and the perpetrator. In this
context, the affiliation is women and men in engineering positions. Supervisors must understand
their own level of responsibility for ensuring the branch’s culture allows women to feel
comfortable and free from hostility based on their gender.
Benefits. Additional declarative knowledge potentially absent from many supervisors
includes ways a more diverse workforce can improve performance within the work unit and the
organization (Choi, 2011; Foldy, 2004). This gap in knowledge may result in an absence of
motivation to hire female engineers. Choi (2011) and Foldy (2004) further suggest more
heterogeneous groups also consider a greater range of perspectives and produce more high-
quality solutions than homogeneous groups typically do. Supervisors who do not understand this
gender-diversity benefit may not be motivated to increase female engineer representation and
their inclusion in decision-making processes.
Procedural knowledge influences. Procedural knowledge involves the understanding of
how to apply processes to accomplish goals (Bloom et al., 1956; Krathwohl, 2002). This
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 38
procedural knowledge applies directly to exhibiting knowledge of hiring processes, specifically
to include effective ways to reach women as candidates for engineering positions within the
organization. Once hired into the organization, retention of high performing employees, women
in this case, becomes critical to sustain the change. This type of procedural knowledge includes
supervisors knowing how to create a supportive environment to enable increased retention.
Jauhari, Sehgal, and Sehgal (2013) suggest successful employee retention also requires
engagement with the work and the organization itself. Practitioners can apply these
aforementioned concepts to retaining female engineers, as well as applying them to hiring and
retaining other underrepresented groups. Once hired, women (and men) must be engaged in and
identify with the organization (Simard, Henderson, Gilmartin, Schiebinger, & Whitney, 2008).
Conversely, if women are subjected to stereotypes and lack of acceptance in their engineering
community, they are more likely to leave the organization (Simard, et al., 2008). This is where
the supervisor’s knowledge is critical to retaining women engineers. Supervisors must have an
awareness of acceptance issues within their branch to allow for adequately addressing and
deterring the adverse behaviors toward women. Knowledge specific to understanding how to
identify and address unsupportive behaviors should be integrated into the organization’s
approach to diversity management.
Diversity and talent management practices should include processes to assist the
organization in attracting and recruiting the right people (female engineers in this case), training
them and engaging them meaningfully to grow the organization (Jauhari et al., 2013), thus
ensuring a diverse and talented workforce. Doing so effectively may lead to increased female
engineer representation and retention (Christensen & Rog, 2008; Jauhari et al., 2013). Utilizing
a diversity management process that includes women can assist with engaging the women in the
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 39
workplace and promote feelings of inclusion and value in the workplace. Ensuring supervisors
have the required procedural knowledge about accessing, hiring, and retaining women in
predominantly male professions is imperative to increasing and maintaining the equitable
representation of women in engineering positions.
Metacognitive knowledge influences. Metacognitive knowledge, the individual’s own
awareness of their understanding of tasks and processes (Bloom, et al., 1956; Krathwohl, 2002),
may also play a role in WISE’s inability to increase female engineer representation. Supervisors
not aware of any deficiencies in their abilities specific to accessing and hiring women may be a
contributing factor to the underrepresentation of women engineers in the organization. If
supervisors feel they completely understand all facets of the hiring process, they will not seek
training opportunities for learning ways to better reach women candidates. Additionally,
supervisors must have metacognitive knowledge of if they themselves are contributing to the
problem of bias through assessment of their own potential biases against women in engineering.
Without this metacognitive knowledge and admission, addressing issues of bias in the branch
will prove difficult if the supervisor his/herself have biases about women’s abilities in
engineering professions.
Motivation
The current literature on motivation related to performance is extensive and includes
various theoretical causes and effects of motivation in the workplace. These findings agree with
one primary concept; motivation deficiencies can ultimately lead to low performance in the
workplace (Bandura, 1997; Clark & Estes, 2008). Clark and Estes (2008) suggest motivation
consists of our willingness to work toward a goal, keep us moving toward that goal, and
ultimately determines the level of effort we give to accomplishing that goal. Motivation is
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 40
comprised of three indices: active choice involving an individual choosing whether or not to
engage in a task; persistence, consisting of choosing to continue with pursuing a task; and mental
effort, or the determination of the level of effort to dedicate toward task completion (Clark &
Estes, 2008). This section will discuss recent literature on motivation and motivation theory and
demonstrate how inadequacies in motivation can prevent the accomplishment of goals,
specifically as applicable to employing qualified individuals within WISE.
This project includes the examination of two primary motivational constructs with
respect to the supervisors within WISE and their motivation for hiring women engineers. These
constructs might explain motivation barriers preventing the successful hiring of female engineers
within the organization. The constructs believed to explain the inability to achieve the
stakeholder global goal are expectancy value theory and self-efficacy theory.
Expectancy value theory. Expectancy value theory consists of the belief an individual
has toward perceived expectations of success and the value of the various options available
(Eccles, 2009). This theory involves an individual making a decision to pursue a task based on
their belief they can succeed and task completion will provide value and is worth pursuing.
Eccles (2009) suggests this perceived value is determined by four related concepts;
1) Intrinsic value - refers to the enjoyment a person experiences or expects to experience
as the result of engaging in a task
2) Attainment value - refers to the connection a person perceives between their own
identity, preferences, or beliefs and the task in question
3) Utility value - refers to the how well a task fits into the individual’s perceived goals and
plans
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 41
4) Engagement cost (perceived) - cost of engaging in the task associated with the fear of
failure, social consequences, and potential loss of self-worth
Application of this concept to WISE translates into supervisors, or any level of employee that
experiences problems with expectancy value, will be less motivated to undertake associated tasks
that ultimately interferes with attempting and/or accomplishing related goals.
Supervisor ‘utility value’ and ‘attainment value’ perceptions. Motivation to recruit
female engineers begins with supervisors feeling there is value in a diverse workforce and female
engineers benefiting the organization. Supervisors must understand the value in having equitable
representation of female engineers within their branch. If the perceived cost of resources and
cognitive effort is too high, supervisors may not feel addressing the problem provides enough
value to pursue. Eccles (2006) discusses how people who have limited time and energy will
sometimes avoid a task because of a perceived high cost.
Specific to supervisor ‘attainment value’ perceptions, emphasis on and incentivizing of
increased hiring of women for engineering positions by executive leadership might motivate
supervisors to increase their efforts for increasing women’s representation in the engineering
profession. If supervisors do not perceive value in attaining an increase in the number of women
employed as engineers in the organization, he or she will not persist at such a task. Perceived
value determines our willingness to work toward a goal and the level of effort we are willing to
dedicate for achieving the goal (Eccles, 2006).
Self-efficacy theory. Self-Efficacy theory originates from social cognitive theory and is
defined as a judgment or belief one has about their own ability to learn new knowledge or
perform a task with successful outcomes (Bandura, 1997; Pajares 2006). Pajares (2006) suggests
self-efficacy is at the core of human motivation. Without a belief in the abilities of one’s self,
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 42
goal attainment will prove very difficult, if not impossible (Pajares, 2006). Higher self-efficacy
leads to a greater likelihood of increased choice, persistence, and mental effort (Bandura, 1997).
Supervisor self-efficacy. A supervisor’s lack of self-efficacy may contribute to the
inability to hire female engineers. Research by Al-Eisa, Furayyan, and Alhemoud (2008) and
Ismail, Sieng, Abdullah, and Francis (2010) demonstrated management support and
communication as primary factors affecting learning transfer intention and motivation to pursue
learning. Receiving support (encouragement and assistance) from a supervisor has a direct
relationship with an individual’s pursuit of learning and intention to transfer (retain) knowledge
taught during training. This translates into the possibility of insufficient support from the
supervisor’s immediate boss (division managers) specific to seeking knowledge for effective
hiring practices within WISE. Al-Eisa et al. (2008) also found self-efficacy played a role in the
learning transfer intention of employees. The supervisor’s motivation to learn and intentions of
transferring the knowledge into long-term memory are also directly related to their level of self-
efficacy, in addition to the possible lack of support from their own supervisor. Implying, if the
supervisor receives effective support from their own superior, their intention to learn and transfer
what they learn may improve. This is potentially applicable to the supervisor’s self-efficacy
specific to confidence levels in locating, recruiting, hiring, and retaining women for employment
as engineers within their branch.
Organizational Barriers
Clark and Estes (2008) describe organizational barriers as the formal or informal policies,
processes, or resources in the organization affecting performance and goal achievement. These
barriers must be accurately identified and validated to effectively address the problems and close
the performance gap. Additionally, one of the most important elements associated with work
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 43
processes is the culture of the organization (Clark & Estes, 2008). When the culture of the
organization interferes with goal achievement, the culture will need to change. However,
changing organizational culture is not an easy task. Clark and Estes (2008, p. 111) suggest a few
questions to assist in determining the existence of organizational barriers:
1. In what ways is this organization different and unique?
2. How and when do you get performance feedback?
3. What aspects of your organization and its goals do people here value most?
4. When major changes are made, who drives the change and what typically happens?
Answers to these questions will help guide the project in determining what cultural influences
need change to close the gap effectively. Other types of organizational barriers exist in addition
to organizational culture, including hiring processes, which can have unrecognized cognitive
bias, especially affecting the organization when supervisors who are typically the most involved
in hiring employees have cognitive biases regarding women.
Gender schemas and cognitive bias. Gender schemas involve the ideas people hold
about appropriate roles for individuals based on their gender (sex). People sometimes feel
particular jobs may be better suited for either a man or a woman. As associated to STEM-related
career paths, some have opinion belief men are more suited for engineering professions than are
women. Choi (2011), in his study of women in the federal civilian workforce, found women
may be disadvantaged in the workplace based on stereotypes of role differences between men
and women. Choi goes on to explain this may be the reason representation and advancement for
women in certain federal positions is limited. Faulkner (2009) suggests women in engineering
careers have to work harder to prove their ability than do their male counterparts. If women do
not prove their ability, they are often excluded from inner circles of their workplace networks,
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 44
which can adversely affect opportunities for advancement (Faulkner, 2009). Gender schemas
become more relevant in the workplace when it comes to male-dominated occupations, such as
engineering, where females are evaluated less favorably than males (Reskin, 2003; Ridgeway &
Correll, 2004) and male employers prefer to work with members of their own sex (Reskin,
2003). In addition to gender schemas, cognitive bias can present an organizational barrier and
hinder females from entry into and success within the workplace.
Closely related to gender schemas, cognitive bias is defined as a situation where
inferences about females in STEM, particularly in male-dense professions such as engineering,
occur in an illogical fashion (Fiske, 1998; Gorman, 2005). Hiring officials create their own
subjective social reality based on a perception females are unable to succeed in the male
dominated profession from a perceived lack of ability (Gorman, 2005). Chambliss and Uggen
(2000) discuss evidence showing limited occupational mobility for a woman exists when the
gender composition of hiring supervisors is predominantly male. Multiple empirical studies
support the influence of cognitive bias on hiring decisions in organizations (Brewer & Brown,
1998; Fiske, 1998; Gorman, 2005; Nelson, Acker, & Manis, 1996), as well as the presence of
gender schemas. Both barriers have been shown to prevent women from entering and remaining
in the field of engineering.
Hiring practices. Current hiring practices specific to job posting locations and the
language used in the advertisements may not be effectively reaching potential female engineer
candidates for open positions in organizations (Glass & Minnotte, 2010), including the federal
government. To prevent inadvertently excluding qualified female candidates, the advertisement
and subsequent screening processes must be unbiased. In male dominated occupations such as
engineering, female candidates may not have access to job availability information, which
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 45
impedes their opportunity for securing open positions (Glass & Minnotte, 2010; McGuire, 2000).
Glass and Minnotte (2010) suggest the limited amount of candidates is contributing to the
underrepresentation of females in male-dominated STEM careers such as engineering. To
prevent this, organizations must ensure hiring practices are effectively reaching female
candidates.
Diversity management. The workforce in the 1980’s began seeing increases in racial
diversity and experienced increased participation from historically underrepresented minorities
(Pitts, 2009; 2010). As organizations also increase their levels of gender diversity, they must
effectively manage it. Pitts (2009; 2010) explains diversity management as the practice of
addressing and supporting multiple personal characteristics within a group. Management
includes efforts such as educating the group and providing support for respect of various racial,
cultural, societal, geographic, economic, and sexual backgrounds and differences. Mathews
(1998) describes diversity management in a slightly different way, as a component of managing
human resources, including the assertion that policies and programs making up diversity
management tend to vary between organizations and many times encompass training programs,
family-friendly work policies, mentoring, and advocacy groups (Kellough & Naff, 2004).
Family-friendly work policies. Family-friendly policies are those that assist parents of
young children to balance work and family responsibilities successfully. Examples of these are
flexible work hours, telework, and childcare assistance. Women in the United States have
historically been the family’s primary care givers for their young children (CAWMSET, 2000;
Mason, 2004). While these numbers are constantly shifting, men as the primary earners remains
prevalent in many families. Many single mothers rely on family-friendly policies to be available
for them to take care of their young children while maintaining a career for income (Mason &
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 46
Goulden, 2004; Simard et al., 2008). Studies have demonstrated women often leave STEM
careers because they perceive an incompatibility between workplace expectations and family
responsibilities (Fouad et al., 2011; Heilbronner, 2013). Organizations without family-friendly
policies run the risk of losing female employees who must regularly tend to family
responsibilities (Mason & Goulden, 2004). Even with family-friendly policies in place, Simard,
et al. (2008) found women who utilize the family-friendly policies often suffer a “family
penalty” more frequently than men do. Having a policy established is not sufficient alone to
retain female engineers. Supervisors must also ensure the female engineers can use the policies
without fear of penalty for doing so.
Mentors. Studies have shown, for women to have long-term success in male-dominated
STEM careers, female mentors and role models play an important role. Hunt (2015, 2016) noted
a dearth of female mentors in science and engineering occupations as one explanation for the
higher rate of turnover of females, compared to males. Bhatia and Amati (2010) noted in their
study that a lack of female role models remains a barrier to the advancement of women in the
field of engineering specifically. They also found peer support networks improve women’s
optimism and confidence levels, which may prevent women from leaving engineering
professions (Bhatia & Amati, 2010). Increasing the representation of female engineers in the
profession can effectively increase the number of female mentors and may reduce instances of
this organizational barrier.
The various knowledge, motivation, and organizational barriers presented in this chapter
are explored as part of this project to establish or disprove their existence as contributors to the
underrepresentation of women in engineering positions. Table 3 displays the various possible
knowledge, motivation, and organizational elements explored in this project. Furthermore, the
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 47
organization must also establish accountability for supervisors with respect to the hiring and
retention of women for engineering positions in the organization. Approaches may include
methods such as incentives, inclusion within supervisor performance appraisals, and ensuring
department, division, and executive leadership are role modeling the importance of hiring more
women for vacant engineering positions. However, these potential solutions and/or controls are
explored in the latter stages of this project for effectiveness in addressing this problem of
practice.
Table 3
Assumed Knowledge, Motivation, and Organizational (KMO) Influences
Organizational Mission
Integrate, test, evaluate, and provide life-cycle engineering and logistics for today’s and
tomorrow’s military systems.
Organizational Global Goal
By September 2018, the organization will increase the representation of women engineers across
the organization by 5%.
Stakeholder Goal
Increase and maintain the branch’s representation of women in engineering positions to a
minimum of 20%.
Knowledge
Declarative:
- Supervisors do not know the benefits of
having more women engineers.
- Supervisors do not know the challenges
women engineers in the organization face.
Procedural:
- Supervisors do not know how to locate and
recruit women engineers.
Motivation
Expectancy Value:
- Utility: Supervisors do not feel hiring women
engineers is important to the organization.
Self-Efficacy:
- Supervisors are not confident in their ability to
locate and hire women engineers.
Organizational
- Cognitive bias
- Ineffective hiring practices
- Hiring women engineers not emphasized
- No access to family-friendly work policies
- Hostile culture toward women
- Women are not attracted to the organization
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 48
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
The following chapter discusses the methodological approach to the project including the
research questions guiding the project, the conceptual framework used to develop appropriately
constructed research questions, and the data collection methods and selection criterion for each
participant. The chapter ends with descriptions of the project’s approach to data analysis, ethics,
credibility, and trustworthiness, and the limitations of the project and subsequent delimitations.
Research Questions
The research questions that guided the use of the KMO framework methodology were:
1. What are the knowledge, motivation, and/or organizational barriers causing the
representation of women engineers at WISE to remain at only 15%?
2. What are some recommended solutions to increase the representation of women
engineers within the organization?
Conceptual Framework
Maxwell (2013) asserts the importance of a conceptual framework for a study to model
the beliefs a researcher has about the existence of a phenomena. Having this graphical or
narrative representation allows the researcher to define goals of the study and develop relevant
research questions to explain potential causes of the phenomena (Maxwell, 2013). Maxwell
further suggests the conceptual framework also leads to identification of validity threats to the
study’s findings.
Achievement of the organization’s goal for a workforce composition representative of the
national labor force (WISE, 2015) is threatened if existing KMO barriers are not eliminated.
Reaching the organization’s goal to increase female representation will not occur without
removing the barriers preventing it. The comparison and synthesis of the project results with the
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 49
empirical literature attempted to validate findings within the context of WISE’s environment.
Additionally, a thorough analysis concludes the project and generates recommendations for
research-based solutions to correct the gender employment gap. Introduced and discussed in
chapter two, knowledge, motivation, and organizational influencers (K = Knowledge; M =
Motivation; O = Organizational) are conceivably preventing increased representation of female
engineers. While there is a multitude of potential influencers, this project focused on a more
limited scope consisting of likely prevalence based on cursory probes:
1. Awareness of Challenges (K)
2. Hiring Process Knowledge (K)
3. Expectancy Value (M)
4. Self-Efficacy (M)
5. Hiring Process/Access (O)
6. Family-Friendly Policies (O)
7. Hostility (O)
8. Cognitive Bias (O)
9. Gender Schemas (O)
Figure 7 shows the stakeholder of focus for this project, the supervisors, and his or her
relationship with the executive leadership and the Human Resources (HR) department.
Assumptions were these two latter entities work together in communicating to the supervisors
the importance of having equitable representation for female engineers. The executive
leadership and the HR department control hiring policies and processes, currently unable to
increase the number of female engineers. If these current hiring practices are not adequately
reaching potential female engineers (organizational barrier) and/or the supervisors are not
motivated to hire or retain female engineers (motivation and organizational barrier), the
organization may be inadvertently transferring responsibility onto female engineers to pursue
employment at the organization. Furthermore, this project looked to validate Faulkner’s (2009)
assertion and my concurrence that a female engineer would need to prove she is significantly
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 50
WISE Organization
Supervisors
Women’s Employment Barriers
Organizational
- Workplace Challenges
- Family-Friendly Policies
- Gender Schemas
- Cognitive Bias
- Hiring Practices
Human Resources (HR)
Knowledge
- Declarative
- Procedural
Motivation
- Expectancy Value
- Self-Efficacy
Executive Leadership
Branch Level Barriers
more qualified than a male to be hired as an engineer at WISE. If validated, this organizational
barrier and its origination from the supervisor’s motivational barriers of gender schema and
cognitive bias have contributed to the underrepresentation of women in engineering. Maxwell
(2013) asserts that the experiential knowledge of the researcher is an important aspect of research
proposals commonly ignored by most students and scholars alike. My experience as a member
of the organization significantly contributes to development of this conceptual framework and
related assumptions. Figure 7 demonstrates the high-level framework construct within WISE
and the paths of influence that can either contribute to the gap or close the gap.
Figure 7. Conceptual Framework Diagram w/ Path of Influence
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 51
Participating Stakeholders
The stakeholder group for this project was the branch supervisors within the WISE
organization overseeing one or more engineers within their branch. These engineering branch
supervisors conduct all hiring for open positions within their respective branches. Since this
project focused specifically on the locating, hiring, and retaining practices specific to women
engineers, the criterion for sampling required supervisors with experience managing women
engineers. The design of question structure looked to extract those specific issues interfering
with hiring and retaining women engineers, supervisor perceptions of women’s value to the
engineering division of the organization, and other potential KMO barriers that prevent equitable
representation in the organization.
Survey Sampling Criterion and Rationale
Engineering supervisors. Selection of the first criterion for sampling was purposeful to
include only supervisors in charge of branches employing engineers. The primary rationale
behind this is to ensure the data captured reflected only the opinions of those involved with the
hiring and supervision of engineers explicitly. There would prove no value in obtaining the
perspectives of those who have no experience or need to locate, hire, or retain engineers.
Additionally, survey responses from this group of stakeholders were used to inform the interview
protocol, thus enabling deeper probing into potential KMO barriers.
Experience. Although the survey was sent to all supervisors overseeing engineers, the
survey structure demarcated participants with experience hiring a minimum of five engineers to
ensure responses were based on experience with the hiring processes, successes, or failures with
women engineers and other experiences related to retention issues and workplace difficulties.
Data was not used from participants not meeting the minimum supervisory and hiring experience
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 52
criteria. This rationale ensured the sample only included supervisors with adequate experience in
selecting candidates from the list of qualified candidates for engineering vacancies.
Additionally, the survey attempted to elicit responses showing the use of effective diversity
management approaches to inform the interview protocol and assist with probing into any
identified retention problems experienced by supervisors.
Survey Recruitment Strategy and Rationale
The participant recruitment strategy consisted of obtaining a listing of all engineering
supervisors across WISE and sending a survey link via email to those supervisors. Since a list of
all supervisors of engineering branches is readily available from the HR department, surveys
were sent to all identified supervisors to increase response probability from the target group
having experience supervising engineers. This approach also increased the probability of
previous observable workplace interactions between engineers, both men and women. The
assumption was these interactions could have led to previous turnover for women engineers and
might reveal important data for the project.
The most recent HR data estimates the number of engineering supervisors at
approximately 104 individuals (male and female) located across the organization within all four
departments (WISE HR, 2015). The data collection began with a survey before starting the
interview portion, allowing responses to inform the development of the interview protocol. A
target response rate of 40%, or approximately 45, was thought to be sufficient to inform the
interview that followed the survey portion of the project and enable use of appropriate probing
questions. The final tally of survey respondents was 60 supervisors for a representation of 58%,
surpassing the target rate by 18 percentage points. Furthermore, no incentives were offered in
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 53
exchange for survey participation to reduce the likelihood of disengaged respondents providing
disingenuous answers for monetary gain without concern for data reflective of reality.
Interview Sampling Criterion and Rationale
Engineer supervisors. Conducting the interviews with a small and purposeful sample of
mostly female supervisors who oversee engineering branches allowed further probing into the
existence of identified KMO barriers from the survey responses. The sampling approach
attempted to obtain a majority of female supervisors for participation in the interviews to allow
for them to speak to their experience as an engineer and as a supervisor. Selection of eight
engineering supervisors consisted of all with experience supervising male and female engineers.
The interviews consisted of exploratory structured questions designed to further understand and
validate the potential influencers contributing to the gender gap. Interview questions were
developed to gain insight from supervisors about possible hiring difficulties and retention issues
resulting in employee turnover specific to women in the engineering profession. The goal of this
approach was to further develop ideas about the inefficiencies contributing to unsuccessful hiring
and retention of women engineers.
Female supervisors of engineers. Conducting the interviews with primarily women
supervisors with experience in engineering positions attempted to uncover the perceptions
women have as employees of the organization. This group’s opinions and feelings were
compared with the responses in the survey portion of the project to validate or dismiss assumed
barriers that might go unnoticed by management. This approach also ensured consideration of
more perspectives of women, since the majority of supervisors in the organization are men.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 54
Interview Recruitment Strategy and Rationale
A purposeful sampling strategy for the interview participants included female supervisors
with experience hiring engineers and one male supervisor with limited experience hiring
engineers, as identified during the “Snowball” recruitment method, which entailed asking
participants for the name of another potential participant that might be willing to participate as
well (Woodley & Lockard, 2016). To provide adequate insight, participants with experience
were required to have a minimum of five years’ experience as a supervisor. This smaller group
of participants allowed more time for conducting the interviews in hope of uncovering more
information specific to issues they have experienced with the hiring and retention processes as
well as observations of hostility and other assumed organizational barriers.
Data Collection and Instrumentation
Two different data collection methods extracted potential knowledge, motivation, and
organizational barriers preventing equitable representation of women engineers within WISE.
These methods consisted of a quantitative self-administered survey and a qualitative in-person
interview with supervisors who oversee engineering branches. To select supervisors for
participation in the interview portion of the project, the survey component of the data collection
process preceded the interview component, thus allowing the results to determine what themes
need deeper exploration.
Surveys
Administration of a 27-question survey assessed potential knowledge, motivation, and
organizational barriers for gauging supervisor experience and inform interview protocol
development. Qualtrics, a software program available through the University of Southern
California (USC), assisted with survey dissemination and response analysis. The survey link
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 55
was emailed to all supervisors currently or formerly overseeing engineers within all four
departments across the organization. Completion and analysis of five pilot surveys testing for
consistency and accuracy helped ensure the reliability of resulting data. This pilot process
evaluated clarity of the questions to ensure respondents could understand them and thus, reduce
question skipping and increased response rates. The intention of question design was to capture
the stakeholder’s involvement with, understanding of, and motivation for hiring women
engineers and their perceived value to the organization. Exploration of assumed influences
preventing equitable employment of women engineers within the organization utilizing the
survey initially, with the following interviews focused on uncovering reasons for this
phenomenon.
Interviews
Sixty minute interviews were conducted in-person with five women supervisors
individually, one male supervisor, and two women supervisors through e-mail because of their
busy schedules, to obtain opinions and experiences and corroborate or refute the survey
responses. All women participants in the interview portion had an engineering degree and spent
time as an engineer in the subject organization. The project’s approach entailed conducting the
interviews in the supervisor’s office or local conference rooms to ensure both their comfort and
privacy, permitting them to speak more freely. None of the interviewees agreed to audio record
the interview to ensure their security and anonymity. Furthermore, audio recording was
prohibited, as communicated by the HR director. As a result, written and detailed notes were
used for data collection. Interview questions were open-ended to facilitate deep probing of
themes identified in the survey responses, thus contributing to the qualitative dimension of this
mixed-methods approach.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 56
Merriam and Tisdale (2016) suggests good interview questions stimulate responses from
the interviewee. The types of questions asked during the interview precipitated from the
responses received during survey data collection to stimulate responses describing the perceived
causes for the identified barriers. Construction of interview questions probed into the previously
identified barriers from the survey data. Merriam (2016) influenced the design of the specific
types of questions asked regarding:
1. Experience
2. Opinion & Values
3. Knowledge
4. “Why” Questions
Additionally, Merriam asserts ideal questions asked during an interview will result in data
descriptive of both fact and opinion, which is useful to study virtually anything. Use of these
opinions provided insight into the motivation-specific assumptions identified in the conceptual
framework: cognitive bias, gender schema, and hiring practices.
Analysis of responses from female supervisors attempted to identify recurring themes of
observed knowledge, motivation, and organizational barriers preventing employment equity for
women in the engineering professions. Just as with the survey strategy, there were no incentives
offered in exchange for participation in the interview.
Table 4
KMO Assessment Approach
Organizational Mission
Integrate, test, evaluate, and provide life-cycle engineering and logistics for today and
tomorrow’s military systems.
Organizational Global Goal
By September 2018, WISE will increase the representation of women engineers across the
organization by 5%.
Stakeholder Goal
Increase and maintain the branch’s representation of women in engineering positions to a
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 57
minimum of 20%.
Assumed Knowledge Influences How Will It Be Assessed?
Declarative:
Factual -
(K) Supervisors do not know the challenges
women engineers in the organization face.
Conceptual -
(K) Supervisors do not understand the
benefits of having more women engineers.
Survey:
Q14 - “The organizational culture here can
sometimes be hostile toward women
engineers.” (Strongly agree – Strongly
disagree)
Survey:
Q20 - “This organization has trouble retaining
women in engineering positions.” (Strongly
agree – Strongly disagree)
Interview:
“Describe some challenges you feel female
engineers do/might present within your branch,
if any.” (Open-ended)
Interview:
“In your experience, how do you feel women
engineers are treated by their male
counterparts? Please give examples” (Open-
ended)
Interview:
“Please describe some benefits of having
women engineers in the organization.” (Open-
ended)
Procedural:
(K) Supervisors do not know how to locate
and hire women engineers.
Interview:
“Briefly describe the process to locate, hire, and
recruit women engineers.” (Open-ended)
Assumed Motivation Influences How Will It Be Assessed?
Self-Efficacy:
(M) Supervisors are not confident in their
ability to locate and hire women engineers.
Survey:
Q19 - “I feel confident in my ability to locate
and recruit WOMEN for engineering positions
within my branch.” (Strongly agree – strongly
disagree)
Utility Value:
(M) Supervisors do not feel having women
engineers is beneficial to the organization.
Interview:
“Describe the feelings you have about this
organization increasing the representation of
women engineers specific to any pros or cons
you think there may be.” (Open-ended)
Interview:
“In what ways do you feel this organization
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 58
does/does not place value on the contribution of
women engineers?” (Open-ended)
Assumed Organizational Influences How Will It Be Assessed?
(O) The organization does not emphasize
hiring more women engineers.
Survey:
Q17 - “This organization recognizes
branches/divisions that do a better job of hiring
women.” (Strongly agree – strongly disagree)
Survey:
Q15 - “How much importance do you feel this
organization places on increasing the
representation of women in engineering
positions?” (Not at all important – Extremely
important)
Interview:
“Do you feel this organization places
importance on hiring female engineers? Please
explain.” (Open-ended)
(O) The organization is not utilizing diversity
management practices to retain women
engineers.
Survey:
Q21 - “Does your branch have a diversity
management process?” (No - Yes)
Survey:
Q22 - “Does the diversity management plan
include female personnel specifically?” (No -
Yes)
(O) Women in engineering professions are
leaving the organization prior to retirement.
Survey:
Q11 - “How many (women engineers) left your
branch during your time as a supervisor?”
(Total)
Survey:
Q12 - “Of those, how many left the
organization altogether when they left your
branch?” (Total)
Survey:
Q20 - “This organization has trouble retaining
women in engineering positions.” (Strongly
agree – Strongly disagree)
(O) The organization is not presenting itself
as a desirable option for women engineers.
Survey:
Q13 - “In my opinion, women engineers are not
respected by male engineers and engineering
supervisors in this organization.” (Strongly
agree – Strongly disagree)
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 59
Interview:
“Do you feel women engineers want to work in
this organization? Why or why not?” (Open-
ended)
(O) The hiring process is not adequately
reaching women engineers, which prevents
them from appearing on the interview list.
Survey:
Q26 - “List all venues/websites/organizations
(that you are aware of) that advertise open
engineering positions.” (Text entry)
Survey:
Q25 - “How often do women appear on the
final list of interview candidates for engineering
positions?” (Never – Always)
Interview:
“As a supervisor, have you ever had a female
engineer appear on the list of qualified
engineering candidates for a position you
advertised?”
Data Analysis
The first phase of analysis utilized statistical calculations of the survey responses for
KMO barriers and showed the percentage of supervisors who positively responded to the
questions asked of them regarding the existence of assumed KMO influencers present in the
organization. Contrasting the positive responses with the negative responses demonstrated the
prevalence or scarceness of potential causes for the employment gap. Additional calculation of
the mean, mode, and standard deviation for survey responses, where applicable, exhibited the
periodicity of knowledge, motivation, and organizational barriers within the organization, as
experienced or observed by the supervisors. Analysis of this initial phase of data collection
through the Qualtrics software provided important information to allow the more in-depth
interview phase to confirm the existence of barriers experienced by women engineers within the
WISE organization.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 60
The second phase of data collection involved analysis of interview responses
accomplished concurrently with conducting the interviews because of the time limits imposed
upon the project. Analytic memo development followed each interview to identify connections
and new themes, while also making note of the other important elements resulting from the
interview. Additionally, I documented my own thoughts, concerns, and initial conclusions about
the data in relation to the conceptual framework and research questions within the memos as part
of the process. Employing open coding in the initial phase of interview analysis looked for
empirical codes and themes and a priori codes were applied from the conceptual framework
identified early in chapter three. The subsequent phase of analysis aggregated the empirical
coding and a priori codes into analytic and axial codes. The third and final phase of data analysis
identified patterns and themes that related to the conceptual framework and addressed each of the
research questions independently. Uncovering these themes attempted to establish the existence
of specific KMO influencers or introduce a reasonable level of deniability for the assumed
influences.
A chart showing theme representation as a percentage of survey respondents presents
analysis assertions for the quantitative results of the survey. A bar chart and table show the
representation of supervisors with a confirming response to survey questions supporting each
asserted KMO barrier’s quantitative data. Chapter 4 presents the statistical analysis’ descriptive
data reflecting the median, mode, and standard deviation of responses.
The coded interview data was cleaned and results presented Chapter 4, listing the themes
and the number of instances that they appeared in the transcripts. These themes were compared
with the survey responses to validate the survey data and assist with demonstrating the existence
of each barrier. An association between the qualitative and quantitative results attempted to
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 61
validate assertions from both perspectives to assist with discrediting the criticisms that using
only one approach sometimes invites.
Credibility and Trustworthiness
Credibility, also referred to as internal validity, involves the extent to which the findings
of the research match reality, or what is truly happening with the subject of study (Merriam,
2016). Employment of several research design techniques attempted to increase the credibility
of this project. The first of these is triangulation of the data collected to ensure multiple sources
demonstrate similar findings. Collection of data from the organization’s reports, survey
responses, and analysis of interview responses from the stakeholders of focus for the project
increased the consistency of findings. The second design technique included ensuring the
respective individuals validated the interview summaries and interpretations to ensure accurate
statement and belief descriptions. Finally, full disclosure of my own biases and assumptions
were included in the ethics section below to identify where I may have potentially skewed the
project’s approach, assumptions, or findings. Merriam (2016) asserts the researcher helps to
increase his or her credibility by identifying biases and assumptions before the research
commences. Merriam (2016) further suggests a direct relationship between the trustworthiness
of a study and the credibility of the research and the researcher. Through responsible
construction of the project and demonstrating credibility of the findings, internal validity thus
increased and I established trustworthiness in the findings. Complete ethical consideration using
the aforementioned techniques allowed for increased credibility and trustworthiness.
Ethics
This mixed-methods approach involved conducting a survey within a federal government
organization and used the results to guide the in-person interviews. Ethical considerations have
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 62
been accounted for specific to the project’s methods and data collection procedures. I, as the
researcher, am also a manager for two different inventory accountability programs at the time of
the project, although my job is not directly involved with any of the participants. Additionally,
there was no existence of a supervisor-employee relationship and no identified influence of the
participants in this project. The WISE HR department communicated requirements to maintain
anonymity of participants and the organization throughout this project. To ensure this, no
identifying information describes the participants and a pseudonym was given to the organization
itself and its overarching organization. As a member of the organization, I did not directly
benefit from the results. However, the results were made available to executive leadership
within the organization and might prove useful to both the executive leadership and engineering
communities within the WISE organization.
Prospective participants received informed consent documents to review prior to data
collection. Informed consent consisted of a document, attached in Appendix C, describing the
purpose of the project, description of participant involvement, alternatives to participation,
method of confidentiality, and contact information for me and the Institutional Review Board
(IRB). This document ensured participants were aware their involvement was voluntary, they
were free to withdraw at any time, and identifiable information, if any, would be secured and
destroyed after use (Merriam, 2016). An additional precaution involved using pseudonyms in
place of names to protect the identity of participants. Ethical consideration required protecting
participants from harm related to involvement in a study (Maxwell, 2013). This was important
because a researcher has the responsibility for ensuring their access to information does not come
at a cost to the participant. This was especially significant as this project took place in the same
organization that employs me. To ensure this protection, the University of Southern California
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 63
(USC) Institutional Review Board (IRB) gave approval prior to beginning the data collection
portion of the project. The IRB required adherence to specific regulations and guidelines and
thus ensures the safety and security of all participants. After IRB approval was received through
USC, I met with the senior leadership and discussed the surveys and in-person interview
approaches, and received written permission from the CEO of WISE prior to collecting any data
from stakeholders.
An anonymous survey link was sent in an email to prospective participants requesting
them to click on the link and fill out the self-administered survey. Upon completion of the
survey, a subset of respondents was asked to participate in one-on-one interviews. Before
beginning each interview, participants were asked for permission to audio-record to ensure
participant responses were captured accurately. However, all participants declined to allow
audio recording of the interviews. Incentives for research participation were not provided to
ensure answers recorded from the surveys and during the interviews are not influenced by the
researcher (Merriam, 2016).
Taking potential assumptions and biases into consideration, I might have inherent biases
based on having spent my life in a culture where males have traditionally been the majority in
the engineering profession. Although no biases were evident, the project did uncover some
biases I was unaware existed. Female supervisors participating in the interview portion might
have filtered responses for fear of insulting me, a male, or causing their branch or department to
look badly. To help compensate for this, I explained to female interview participant’s that
unfiltered honesty is requested for accuracy of findings, responses are their own feelings or
observations, and that responses would be kept anonymous. Initial assumptions included
presumed gender schema present within the organization that engineering is more suited for men,
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 64
women are not regularly applying for engineering jobs, and that supervisors lack the motivation
to hire women engineers. Taking these assumptions and biases into consideration during the
project helped me avoid skewing the data analysis.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 65
CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND FINDINGS
This project’s purpose was to establish possible causes of the underrepresentation of
women in engineering professions within the United States, and more specifically in the Warfare
Intelligence Systems Engineering (WISE) organization. The data collected might also prove
useful for other organizations to address the inequitable representation of women, not only in
engineering, but also in other STEM professions. The first of the two research questions
proposed by this project intended to uncover the possible knowledge, motivation, and
organizational deficiencies contributing to the persistent gap between the numbers of men versus
women in engineering professions within the subject organization, currently at 85% and 15%
respectively. The second research question intended to guide the organization with addressing
the disparity in women’s representation through recommendations for research-based solutions
to increase the number of women in engineering at the organization. Utilizing a mixed-methods
approach employed quantitative and qualitative data collection to identify deficiencies
preventing increased representation. A survey sent to engineering supervisors and in-person
interviews conducted with primarily female supervisors captured both perspectives as a
supervisor and as an engineer within the organization. Data collection was limited to only those
within the organization to capture the climate within the organization specifically.
The two research questions that guided this gap analysis were:
1) What are the knowledge, motivation, and/or organizational barriers preventing the
organization from increasing the representation of women in engineering from 15% to
20%?
2) What are some recommended solutions to increase the representation of women
engineers within the organization?
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 66
Results and Findings
This chapter introduces and discusses the data collected from the surveys and the
interviews, identifies recurring themes, and relates these themes to the literature for empirically
based recommendations to address the validated influencers. This chapter’s configuration
consists of two parts; 1) presenting and discussing the data collected and trends identified
followed by 2) analysis and synthesis of the data from the surveys and interviews supporting the
influencers, which is necessary to recommend proper solutions to reduce the equity barriers.
Survey Sampling: Supervisors
The 60 supervisors who responded to the survey ranged in age from 32 to 65 years of
age, with the mode being 50 years old. The range of experience as a supervisor ranged from less
than a year up to 30 years, with the most common length of experience being both one year and
ten years. The gender representation of those who responded was 73.3% (44) men, 18.3% (11)
women, and 8.3% (5) declined to state their sex, as shown in Figure 8. Table 5 breaks out
additional data pertaining to the supervisors completing the survey. Figure 9 and 10 show the
respective racial and educational background of respondents.
Table 5
Surveys: Supervisor sample (n=60)
Supervisor Attribute Mean Median
Age 49.5 50
Federal Gov’t Experience 23.1 25
Supervisory Experience 7.9 6
Engineers Hired 1-5 N/A
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 67
Figure 8. Sex diversity of survey respondents (n = 60)
Figure 9. Racial diversity of supervisor respondents (n = 60)
Female (11)
Male (44)
Prefer not to say (5)
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 68
Figure 10. Highest level of educational achievement for supervisor respondents (n = 60)
Interview Sampling: Supervisors
The second part of the data collection process entailed interviewing eight supervisors
from across the organization. Six interviews were conducted in person at a place of his or her
choosing where they would feel most comfortable and two were through e-mail because of their
busy schedules and time constraints of this project. As shown in Table 6, seven of the
interviewees were female and one was male. Each interviewee came from a recommendation by
the previous interviewee, also called the “snowball” recruiting method (Woodley & Lockard,
2016). Previous employment of the seven women participants included time as engineers in the
subject organization, which allowed for opinions specific to perceived barriers they experienced
or observed first-hand over their respective careers.
0
3
1
23
33
0
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
High school Some college Associate's (2-
year)
Bachelor's Master's Doctorate
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 69
Table 6
Interviews: Supervisor sample (n = 8)
# Gender Interview Method
Supervisory
Experience (years)
# of Women Hired
(experience level)
1 F In Person 8 1 (mid-level)
2 M In Person 3 2 (entry level)
3 F In Person 9 3 (mid-level)
4 F In Person 3 1 (mid-level)
5 F In Person 8 2 (1 entry/1 mid)
6 F In Person 10 1 (entry-level)
7 F E-mail 8 3 (mid-level)
8 F E-mail 4 4 (entry-level)
Survey Results
The first two chapters of this dissertation identified the potential research-based knowledge,
motivation, and organizational influences for the underrepresentation of women engineers and
the assumed causes existing within the subject organization. The survey portion of the project
evaluated the assumed knowledge, motivation, and organizational barriers described below.
1) Assumed knowledge barriers:
Declarative: Supervisors lack knowledge about challenges women engineers face in the
organization.
2) Assumed motivation barriers:
Self-efficacy: Supervisors are not confident in their ability to locate, hire, and retain
women engineers.
3) Assumed organizational barriers:
a. Retention problems (turnover): Women in engineering professions are leaving the
organization prior to retirement.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 70
b. Women engineers not attracted to the organization: The organization is not presenting
itself as a desirable employer for women engineers.
c. Absence of diversity management process: The organization is not utilizing diversity
management practices to retain women engineers.
d. Absence of emphasis on hiring women engineers: The organization does not
emphasize hiring more women for engineering positions.
e. Engineering vacancies not reaching women: The hiring process is not adequately
reaching women engineers, which prevents them from appearing on the interview list.
Knowledge
Results from the knowledge assessment portion of the survey demonstrated supervisors
do not have adequate knowledge about challenges women experience in the workplace, how to
locate and hire women for engineering positions, and if there is a retention problem for women
engineers in the organization. A high rate of supervisors (96.4%) indicated an understanding of
responsibility to counter any hostility experienced by women.
Declarative - Challenges. Data show supervisors do not understand the challenges
women engineers face in the workplace. Responses to the first of two survey questions assessing
declarative knowledge of the challenges women engineers sometimes face in the organization
resulted in 31 of 56 (55.4%) in disagreement with the existence of retention issues regarding
women engineers in the organization, as seen in Figure 11. While six supervisors indicated they
agree there are retention problems, 19 of 56 (33.9%) indicated they did not know if such a
problem exists. This outcome translates into 25 (44.6%) of the survey respondents not disputing
the retention issue proposed by the survey item and project.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 71
Figure 11. Frequency of survey responses: Q20 - This organization has trouble retaining women
in engineering positions. (n = 56)
The second of two declarative knowledge questions assessing knowledge of challenges
for women in engineering resulted in 33 of 56 (58.9%) respondents that disagreed with the
existence of hostility toward women engineers in the organization, as seen in Figure 12.
However, there were three results of significance; only eight of the 56 (14.3%) respondents had
no opinion, two strongly agreed, and five of the 11 (45.5%) self-identified women respondents
indicated they agree to the idea of hostility present in the organizational culture toward women
engineers.
Results from the assessment of knowledge about challenges existing for women
engineers suggest they are present, to some degree, within the subject organization. Although
only 15 of 56 (26.8%) respondents agreed with the existence of hostility, nearly half of the
women respondents indicated there are hostilities toward women engineers. Furthermore, 24.4%
of the men respondents indicated they feel the organization can be hostile to women in
0.0%
10.7%
33.9%
30.4%
25.0%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neither agree nor
disagree
Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 72
engineering, which is significant coming from the group that often would exhibit the hostility.
This result indicates male supervisors might not be able to recognize instances of hostility toward
women and need training in this area, as will be discussed later in Chapter 5.
Figure 12. Frequency of survey responses: Q14 - The organizational culture here can sometimes
hostile toward women engineers. (n = 51)
Motivation
Validation of the potential motivation barriers might indicate there are deficiencies in
motivation for the supervisors to increase the representation of women engineers in their
branches, discussed further in Chapter 5.
Self-efficacy. Too few supervisors feel confident in their ability to locate and recruit
women engineers. Results of survey item Q19 stating, “I feel confident in my ability to locate
and recruit WOMEN for engineering positions within my branch,” revealed 36 of the 56
respondents have confidence in their ability to locate and recruit women. The 64.3% that felt
confident was contrasted with the 35.7% either that do not have an opinion (13) or who do not
4.9%
(2)
19.5%
(8)
12.2%
(5)
9.8%
(4)
53.7%
(22)
0.0%
50.0%
(5)
20.0%
(2)
0.0%
30.0%
(3)
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neither agree nor
disagree
Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree
Men
Women
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 73
have confidence (7). Regarding the response rate of 20 of 56 (35.7%) of respondents unable to
provide a positive response to the survey item, a convincing argument can be made that too
many supervisors are not efficacious regarding their ability to locate women for engineering
positions in their branch. Figure 15 shows the responses indicating supervisor levels of
confidence.
Figure 13. Frequency of survey responses: Q19 - “I feel confident in my ability to locate and
recruit WOMEN for engineering positions within my branch.” (n = 56)
Organizational
Turnover. Survey data could not validate the existence of a high turnover rate of women
in engineering at the organization. Responses to Q10 by the 56 supervisors resulted in 22
responses indicating they had at least one female engineer leave. The 22 who positively
answered were asked an additional question (Q11) regarding how many women left their
branches in total (51), and of the 51, how many left the organization altogether. The 22
supervisors combined for 19 women engineers that left the organization altogether while
working for them. This outcome translates into 37% (19 of 51 women leaving a particular
18
(32.1%)
18
(32.1%)
13
(23.2%)
7
(12.5%)
0
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neither agree nor
disagree
Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 74
branch) leaving the organization altogether to pursue either working elsewhere or cease working
entirely. Figure 16 compares responses to the three questions assessing turnover of women in
engineers at the organization.
Figure 14. Frequency of survey responses: Q10, Q11, and Q12 comparison
Employment choice. Women are not attracted to pursuing engineering careers within
the subject organization. Figure 17 shows responses to survey item Q13: “Women engineers are
not respected by male engineers and engineering supervisors in this organization.” which
assessed the level of respect women in engineering positions receive from their male
counterparts. Half of the women respondents indicated they agree that women engineers are not
respected within the organization. Overall, ten [seven of which were men] of the 56 respondents
answered positively to the survey item, indicating they feel women engineers are not respected
by their peers in the organization. Although this percentage (17.9%) appears insignificant, it is
high enough to determine there may be a problem.
22
51
19
39.3%
37.3%
(19 of 51)
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Q10 - Number of Sup. had
women leave (n = 56)
Q11 - Number of women left
branch (n = 22)
Q12 - Number of women left
Org. (n = 22)
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 75
Figure 15. Frequency of survey responses: Q13 - “Women engineers are not respected by male
engineers and engineering supervisors in this organization.” (n = 56)
No diversity management process. The organization does not have an overarching
diversity management process for supervisors to follow. Figure 18 shows how responses to Q21:
“Does your branch have a diversity management process?” revealed the lack of a diversity
management process within the organization and branches. Without a process for managing a
diverse workforce, supervisors may not know how to address some of the challenges associated
with women engineers in a predominantly male work environment. Sixteen of the 56
supervisors (28.6%) responding to the survey indicated they have a diversity management
process within their branch. Of the 16 respondents with a process, only ten of those processes
addressed women. With the low number of supervisors indicating a diversity management plan,
it remains questionable whether they indeed have one or are confused what a diversity
management plan actually is. Although the percentage of positive responses indicating the
existence of hostility toward women was 26.8% of total respondents, five of the eleven (45.5%)
0.0%
12.2%
7.3%
24.4%
56.1%
0.0%
50.0%
10.0% 10.0%
30.0%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neither agree nor
disagree
Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree
Men
Women
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 76
women respondents answered positively that the organizational culture can sometimes be hostile
toward women engineers.
Figure 16. Frequency of survey responses: Q21 - “Does your branch have a diversity
management process?” (n = 56)
Figure 17. Frequency of survey responses: Q22 - “Does the diversity management plan include
female personnel specifically?” (n = 16)
Lack of organizational emphasis. The organization does not emphasize increasing
women’s representation in engineering positions, and therefore do not have goals established.
Responses to Q14: “I feel increasing the representation of women engineers is important to this
organization,” indicated 22 (39.3%) supervisors felt the organization placed importance on
increasing the population of women in engineering within it. Additionally, the design of Q16
assessed the existence of extrinsic motivation attempts by the organization by asking if they feel:
16
(28.57%)
25
(44.64%)
15
(26.79%)
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Yes
No
Unsure
10
(62.5%)
6
(37.5%)
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Yes
No
Unsure
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 77
“The organization recognizes branches that do a better job of hiring women engineers than
others.” Only seven of the 56 respondents (12.5%) felt recognition is given for hiring more
women engineers. Lastly, 25 of the 56 supervisors felt they could adequately reach women for
engineering openings adequately, given the current hiring process they must use.
Figure 18. Frequency of survey responses: Q17 - “This organization recognizes branches or
divisions that do a better job of hiring women.” (n = 56)
2
(3.57%)
5
(8.93%)
22
(39.29%)
8
(14.29%)
19
(33.93%)
0
5
10
15
20
25
Strongly agree Somewhat agree Neither agree nor
disagree
Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 78
Figure 19. Frequency of survey responses: Q15 - “How much importance do you feel this
organization places on increasing the representation of women in engineering positions?”
(n = 56)
Women not reached by job vacancy notifications. The current job opening process is
not sufficiently reaching women for vacant engineering positions. Survey questions 25: “How
often do women appear on the final list of interview candidates for engineering positions?” and
26: “List all venues, websites, and organizations that advertise open engineering positions.”
shown in Figure 22 and 23, assessed organizational barriers specific to open engineering position
notifications reaching women, thus allowing them an opportunity to apply on the position.
While 40 of the 56 respondents indicated the current hiring process allows for access to women
for open engineering positions, the remaining 16 supervisors could not positively say the process
allows access to women for open engineering positions. Question 25 probed deeper into the
assumed organizational barrier by asking how often women appear on the list of qualified
candidates for an interview. Only 20 (36.4%) of the respondents indicated that women appear on
the final interview list, meaning they met the minimum qualifications, about half the time or
7
(12.5%)
15
(26.79%)
16
(28.57%)
13
(23.21%)
5
(8.93%)
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
Extremely Very Moderately Slightly Not at all
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 79
more. This translates into 63.6% of the respondents indicating less than 50% of the engineering
advertisements result in a woman appearing on the qualified candidate list.
Figure 20. Frequency of survey responses: Q26 - “List all venues, websites, and organizations
that advertise open engineering positions.” (n = 43)
Figure 21. Frequency of survey responses: Q25 - “How often do women appear on the final list
of interview candidates for engineering positions?” (n = 55)
41
(97.6%)
9
(21.4%) 6
(14.3%)
2
(4.8%)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
USAJobs External Companies Interns/Govt Programs Universities
0.0%
61.0%
(25)
7.3%
(3)
17.1%
(7)
14.6%
(6)
0.0%
77.8%
(7)
22.2%
(2)
0.0% 0.0%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
Never Sometimes Half the time Most of the time Always
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 80
Interview Results
The interview portion was designed to take the results of the survey and probe further
into the probable barriers preventing gender equity in engineering and validate or dismiss them,
potentially providing insight into causes of the potential knowledge, motivation, or
organizational barriers. The interview portion of the project further assessed these assumed
knowledge, motivation, and organizational barriers as described below.
1) Knowledge:
a. Declarative: 1. Supervisors lack knowledge of the challenges women engineers face in
the organization and 2. Supervisors do not understand the benefits of having women
engineers.
b. Procedural: Supervisors do not understand how to locate and hire women engineers.
2) Motivation:
Utility value: Supervisors do not feel having women engineers is important to the
organization.
3) Organizational:
a. Organizational emphasis (lacking): The organization does not emphasize hiring women
engineers.
b. Diversity management: The organization is not utilizing diversity management practices
to retain women engineers.
c. Turnover: Women in engineering professions are leaving the organization prior to
retirement.
d. Desirability: The organization is not presenting itself as a desirable option for women
engineers.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 81
e. Hiring process: The hiring process is not adequately reaching women engineer
candidates and therefore women are not appearing on the interview list.
Knowledge
Listed by type and discussed in detail below are the interview questions attempting to
validate the assumed knowledge deficiencies.
Declarative (Factual) - Challenges. Interview data confirmed the existence of
challenges for women engineers in the organization. Six of the eight participants indicated
challenges exist with having male and female engineers within the branches, as demonstrated by
their responses to the interview question; “Are there any challenges you feel having female
engineers present within your branch would or could pose?” Responses varied slightly but
involved similar themes. Participant P1 stated she observed issues with travelling for the male
and female engineers within her branch. P1 stated, “Sometimes travelling is an issue for the men
when they travel with female engineers. The men [sometimes] say their wives do not want them
travelling with a woman.” This presents a definite management challenge when leading a branch
with both men and women requiring regular travel. Based on interview participant statements,
many engineers in the organization are required to travel often as part of their engineering
tasking. If management must carefully choose whom to send on travel based on spouse
opposition to going with the opposite sex, supervisors might subconsciously prefer male
engineers after interview process completion. This could result in the continued
underrepresentation of women in engineering at the organization.
Supervisors P1, P3, and P6 cited differences in communication and perspectives can
present challenges at times. Supervisor P6 said, “They [men and women] have different ways of
thinking, different perspectives, and different ways to team build; not from the basics of being an
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 82
engineer, but in the way of analyzing a situation.” P3 noted, “…communication issues at times
from a younger woman-older man perspective” presents some challenges for P3 as a supervisor.
Declarative (Conceptual) - Women engineer benefits. Supervisors have a limited
understanding about the benefits women provide the work environment, especially in male
dominated professions. Assessment of supervisor knowledge of the benefits women engineers
can provide to their branch and the organization was approached through the survey question;
“Please describe some benefits of having women engineers in the organization.” Supervisor
answers to the question “What benefits do you feel women provide to the workplace?” varied,
but consisted of a similar theme. This theme was relatively shallow and supported a finding that
the organization, including supervisors, has not given much thought to how women engineers
can benefit the organization. Specific to supervisor opinion about the benefits women provide in
the organization, they noted women tend to be better at communication and considering differing
opinions and options during problem solving. Three of the interview responses also indicated
women tend to be more caring and considerate of their coworker’s opinions and feelings. These
are definitely differences between men and women, but not necessarily directly benefitting the
organization.
Procedural - Locating and hiring women. Supervisors do not know how to locate and
hire women for engineering positions specifically, while also abiding by the hiring guidelines
they are expected to follow. Results from the interview did indicate the supervisors understand
the general hiring process for finding qualified engineers for open positions. However, they
could not describe how to access women engineers specifically.
The assumption that supervisors lack adequate knowledge of methods to locate and hire
women engineers was validated through the interviews, which asked about their use of the
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 83
current hiring process and understanding how to locate and hire women engineers. Participants
were able to describe the hiring process they participate in from beginning to end. All of the
interviewees explained the two primary processes: competitive hiring and entry-level engineer
hiring. All of the eight supervisors explained their role in the competitive hiring process is to
write the job description and interview questions and submit to the HR department. The HR
department places the advertisement, compiles the listing of candidates, and provides the list to
the supervisors. The supervisors then conduct the interviews and select an individual for the
position.
The results confirmed that while supervisors have a good understanding of the general
hiring process, they all confirmed that if they were asked to gather a large amount of women
specifically, they would need to go outside of the current process, which they were not sure how
to accomplish. Participant P7 stated, “I think I could contact women’s organizations directly and
ask about potential candidates, but I’m not sure exactly how or if it’s right to do so. “…HR takes
care of all that.” While most communicated some ideas of where to begin, they did not exude
confidence in their ability to do so.
Diversity management. Supervisors do not understand how to manage diversity within
their branch, specifically gender diversity. All of the eight participants demonstrated confusion
about what a diversity management plan was, most believing it entailed purposefully hiring
diverse individuals to work within their branch and across the organization. This result
establishes a problem, because it is difficult to manage diversity effectively if supervisors do not
understand what that term means or that diversity needs to be managed at all. Participant P4
indicated she manages diversity based on her knowledge of the subject. However, P4 is not sure
an appropriate method is being used and confirmed the misunderstanding that diversity
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 84
management entailed hiring diverse employees. Participant P5 stated, “I don’t manage women
any differently than I do men.” While I am sure this statement indicated P5 is striving for equal
treatment, diverse individuals within groups who are part of the minority sometimes require
different management approaches.
Motivation
The interview questions attempting to validate the assumed motivation barriers attempted
to probe deeper into supervisor feelings about the benefits women provide to the work
environment, challenges that may exist with having women in their branch in this male-
dominated profession, and if the organization establishes goals for increasing women’s
representation in engineering across the organization.
Utility value - Increasing representation not important. Supervisors do not feel it is
necessarily important to increase the number of women in engineering within the organization.
While they did not voice any opposition to it, I did not sense urgency or concurrence in their
voices during the interview process. Participant P1 stated, “I don’t see it as a particular problem
(low number of women engineers). I’ve gotten used to it over the years and don’t have any
issues with being one of the few.” Participant P3 said, “There’s room for improvement.”
Additionally, participant P5 responded with, “It (increasing women engineers) does not appear to
be a priority (to the organization).”
The three responses indicating the lack of importance placed on increasing the
representation of women engineers in the organization, combined with the five participants that
feel it is important, could mean there is a motivation barrier. However, additional research and
observation would be necessary to validate this. Additionally, the five who felt it was important
could not provide any quantitative evidence of its importance. Participant P6 stated, “I believe
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 85
there is an effort,” but, like the rest, could not provide specifics or describe any reports or
statements confirming the existence of importance.
Organizational
The first portion of interview questions designed to validate the existence of
organizational barriers preventing women from obtaining and persisting in engineering positions
within the organization are discussed in this section.
Lack of emphasis and goals. The organization does not emphasize increasing women’s
representation in engineering and additionally, have not established a representation target to
achieve. Supervisor perspectives regarding whether or not the organization makes it a priority to
increase the representation of women in engineering positions were consistent. Three
supervisors felt the organization places importance on hiring more women for engineering
positions; however, none of the three could provide evidence confirming neither the importance
nor communication of goals for increasing women’s representation. Supervisor P1 said,
“[increasing representation] does not appear to be a priority.” Supervisor P3 said, “I feel there’s
room for improvement.” It appears the participant’s opinions of importance were purely
subjective with no supporting evidence. Participants did however indicate there are goals
[possibly undocumented] for increasing representation in other diversity areas such as with races
other than European-American (non-Hispanic), also referred to as “White,” as an example. The
participating supervisors were not aware of any reports showing male versus female engineer
representation specifically, although some indicated such a report might exist.
Diversity management absent. The organization has not provided a diversity
management plan for supervisors within the branches to follow. Diversity management is the
practice of addressing and supporting differences in personal characteristics and lifestyles.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 86
Activities carried out by a branch supervisor include things such as educating personnel about
the differences, providing support, and respecting different racial, cultural, societal, economic,
political, and gender backgrounds. Interviewee’s responses indicated they did not understand
what a diversity management plan was, which is a knowledge deficiency indicating the
organization had not provided supervisors with a process, thus leading to this lack of procedural
knowledge. There is a high probability this lack of knowledge is due to the absence of an
overarching diversity management plan that each branch can employ within their respective
branches. Furthermore, effects of this organizational barrier may not be only contributing to
women engineers leaving the organization, but also with other underrepresented groups in the
organization.
Organizational desirability and turnover. Two of the interview questions assessed
women wanting to work in the subject organization and wanting to remain working for the
organization. Responses to the first of the two questions confirmed a belief that women are not
attracted to employment within the organization. Participant P1 stated, “I don’t feel that most
women would consider working here.” P1 noted the lack of family-friendly policies as a primary
factor for this opinion. Participant P3 added, “I don’t feel the environment is the most friendly
for women to work in.” Participant P4 indicated being unsure if women wanted to work in the
organization, but also added, “The organization has a rigid system and it’s hard for women to see
value in pursuing employment here. The military may actually be deterring women rather than
attracting them.” P4 also added, “Women have to use sick leave when taking time off for
pregnancy” as a possible deterrent.
This project was not able to validate the assumption that women engineers are
experiencing a higher rate of turnover in the organization. The data was not available to the me
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 87
and supervisors were not aware of specific reasons for women engineer departures when asked
during the interview portion of the project.
Inaccessible family-friendly work policies. Women engineers are not allowed access to
some family-friendly work policies. Participants were asked about family-friendly work policies
and how they might contribute to the employment gap for women engineers and turnover. Six of
the eight interview participants indicated they did not feel women want to work in the
organization. In response to the question, “Do you feel women engineers would want to work
here?” six of the eight participants cited insufficient family-friendly work policies or the inability
for them to be utilized by women in engineering as a primary cause.
Managing diversity includes enabling diverse groups to co-exist in the organization,
especially when they have unique requirements. Family-friendly work policies, designed to
allow those who require time off to care for family, are typically intended for those with
children. Many times, the woman in the family takes on these responsibilities. Data from the
interviews show women in engineering professions are not always allowed access to some of the
family-friendly policies afforded to women in other professions. Interviewee P1 said, “I don’t
know why there are not more family-friendly policies offered like first 40.” [Offered to
individuals taking the organization-sponsored master’s program] P1 added, “…women are
sometimes discriminated against for taking time off when it is allowed.” Participant P3 said,
“The travel requirements don't work well with primary caregiver responsibilities.” Supervisor
P4 remembered an individual, “….had to use sick leave when taking time off for her pregnancy.
Many in the private sector have paid maternity leave.”
Women engineers uncomfortable. Some women engineers are not comfortable in the
male-dominated profession at the organization. Three primary themes arose from the interview
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 88
responses. First, four of the eight participants indicated they personally know some women feel
uncomfortable working in this organization because of their underrepresentation. Secondly,
responses indicated occasional issues when male and female engineers were required to travel
together. Supervisor P3 stated a women engineer in the branch communicated she was not
“comfortable sharing a rental car (with a man)” on travel, as well as some self-observed issues
with communication styles between men and women, at times, interfering with work progress.
P3 felt women typically wanted to discuss options more thoroughly, whereas the men often times
arrive at an answer without consideration of all possible solutions or opinions, thus causing
frustration from the males. Whether from impatience or egocentric complications, P3 felt there
was a definite challenge at times with men and women co-workers in the engineering
environment.
Cognitive bias and gender schema. Cognitive bias and gender schema exist, to a degree,
within the organization specific to women in engineering. Instances of bias were indicated in
response to the question, “In your experience, how do you feel women [engineers] are treated by
their male counterparts in this organization?” five of the eight indicated poor treatment at times.
Participant P3 stated, “…some men have treated me as though I needed extra help that a man
would not be perceived as needing.” Participant P1 stated, “[some people] are tougher on
women than men.” Both participant P1 and P3 agreed that women typically must work harder
than men do to prove their value and break through stereotypes and preconceived ideas some
people have about women in engineering.
Hostile culture. The organization’s culture can sometimes be hostile toward women in
engineering, although its existence might not always be obvious. Results of the interview
questions relating to the existence of hostility toward women engineers in the organization
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 89
revealed mixed opinions based on their observations as supervisors and experience as a woman
in engineering over their careers. Question ten of the survey asked “In your experience, how do
you feel female engineers are treated by their male counterparts in this organization?” Five of
the eight supervisors indicated women are not always treated well. Participant P1 stated, “People
are tougher on women than men.” and “there is little empathy toward women for having a harder
time [in the organization].” The three participants that never felt any hostility nor observed any
toward women may not have realized it was happening. It may also be a situation where the
women that did observe hostility misunderstood the causes for it. Either way, if there is a
perception of hostility toward women it may be enough of a reason to address it through properly
and effectively managing diversity.
Hiring processes - Access to women. The hiring process in its current form is not
providing sufficient access to women engineers for open engineering positions in the
organization. When addressing how the current hiring process may be creating a barrier
preventing women engineers from obtaining employment in the organization, questions
addressed two different categories: 1) experienced engineers and 2) entry-level engineers.
Participants indicated experienced engineers enter the organization primarily through the
competitive hiring process, when candidates apply on an advertised position and must compete
against other applicants based on experience and merit. Participant P2 described the alternative
hiring path generally selects entry-level engineers during university campus visits; they are hired
into the organization and then dispersed throughout the branches using a lottery-style process.
Competitive. The competitive hiring process is not reaching enough women engineers
and therefore reducing the number of women applying for engineering vacancies. The
competitive, merit-based hiring process involves mid-level to senior-level engineers already
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 90
employed in the engineering profession. Interviewees indicated this process might not be
allowing for access to women for engineering positions, either effectively nor consistently;
therefore the number of women applying for engineering positions is very limited. Using the
single application website termed “USA Jobs” [AKA USA Staffing] might be presenting a
barrier to reaching women about open engineering positions. The website is known commonly
as a website to apply for military-related positions across the U.S. The shared belief of the
interview participants was women are not as inclined as men would be to access this site when
looking for employment. Each interview participant stated he or she agrees with this
generalization based on his or her general belief about women engineers not generally attracted
to a military organization for work. Additionally, women might not be aware the website exists
for finding employment opportunities, especially for women or non-military individuals. This
barrier is one that has an elevated probability for contributing to the employment gap at the
subject organization. If women are indeed not applying for positions posted to this website in
large numbers, it greatly hinders the possibility they would appear on the list of interview
candidates.
Entry-level. Entry-level engineers do not include an equitable number of women based
on the approach to recruiting. The Junior Professional (JP) is an entry-level engineer, typically a
recent college graduate, although not a requirement, as confirmed by the interview participants.
Participants indicated that out of those groups brought into the organization, the number of
women is also low. However, this would primarily indicate an issue of choice for women rather
than an issue with the hiring process for the organization.
Generally, JPs enter into the organization through WISE personnel going to recruit at
universities, setting up a table at the job fairs, and collecting resumes that sometimes result in
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 91
employment offers for graduates. Participant P1 and P3 stated they have observed very few
women approaching the organization’s information table at the recruiting events. P3 added,
“Often times the women will accompany their boyfriends but will not submit a resume nor ask
for information about a career themselves.” The consensus appeared to be women are not
attracted to the organization in large numbers at these events, which leads to a level of
ineffectiveness at bringing more women into the organization for engineering positions. For this
reason, the organization will need to develop a more robust and inclusive recruiting process to
attain more entry-level women engineers for placement in the organization.
Interview participants also confirmed entry-level positions are not typically posted to
university websites through the universities in neither the region nor the state where the
organization resides. With this approach, it is currently left up to the supervisor posting the
advertisement to ensure the posting is done. The participants indicated they do not have time to
do the extra work involved because of their already full workload, so they leave the posting
responsibilities to the HR department in most cases.
Responses from six of the eight (75%) interview participants indicated shortfalls in the
processes for; 1) hiring experienced engineers through the competitive “Merit Promotion”
process and 2) the Junior Professional (JP) hiring process, typically used for recent university
graduates. An assumption of the project and a recurring theme from the interview participants is
sufficient numbers of women for engineering positions may not consistently access the website
www.USAJobs.gov when looking for work. This assumption was difficult to assess when
factoring in that applications do not differentiate between men and women. The only
information available to determine the applicant’s gender is his or her name, which can be
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 92
misleading at times. It is not until the point where a list of interviewees for the position is
developed and interviews conducted that the hiring official discovers the gender of the candidate.
Synthesis of Findings
Validation of many of the knowledge, motivation, and organizational barriers
contributing to the representation gap for women in engineering resulted from both the
quantitative and qualitative parts of the project. The following sections synthesize the findings
from the two different research methods to organize the results and assist with leading to
research supported recommendations. Table 7 consolidates the key data findings from the
survey and the interviews for all validated KMO influences.
Critical Knowledge Deficiencies
Procedural: Diversity management. Without supervisor understanding of how to
manage diversity, there is a high probability representation will remain low as a result of
discomfort experienced by women in a male-dominated profession. Both the survey and the
interviews validated the lack of knowledge for managing diversity [of women in this case] in the
branch. The survey responses to item 21, “Does your branch have a diversity management
process?” and the resulting data demonstrating that only 28.6% of respondents have a diversity
management plan or process, supports the barrier assumption. The interview data provided
similar results, with participants not only indicating none had a diversity management plan, but
also communicating they did not understand exactly what a diversity management plan was nor
how to apply one to manage the diversity within their branch. These interview responses further
indicate those who responded to the survey that they do have a diversity management process,
may not actually understand what that process is and provided inaccurate responses. Not having
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 93
and effectively applying a diversity management plan or process can lead to increased turnover
of and contribute to hostility toward women in engineering positions.
Procedural: Locating and hiring women. Supervisors do not know how to locate and
hire women specifically for engineering positions. Possessing knowledge about ways to access
and hire more women for engineering positions was lacking from interview responses. While
the eight interview participants possessed knowledge that access to women “could be done”
through outside entities such as the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), they did not know how
to proceed with exercising that option. Therefore, this barrier was validated based on the lack of
knowledge for targeting an increase of women engineers.
Critical Motivation Deficiencies
Self-efficacy: confidence in locating and hiring women. Partial validation of a self-
efficacy barrier specific to supervisor confidence with locating and hiring engineers was
established by this project. Responses to the survey question asking about their confidence in
their ability to locate and hire women engineers indicated 76.4% (42 of 55) of supervisors feel
confident in their ability. Interviewee P5 stated, “I think I have the ability to talk to women and
convince them they can be successful in this environment. I am able to get their resume and
bring them in…maybe because being a woman myself makes them feel more comfortable.”
While this statement establishes the ability to bring in entry-level women engineers, it does not
reflect on confidence when using the competitive hiring process.
Because of how the questions were asked and the responses given, this barrier could only
be partially validated. While some supervisors feel confident hiring entry-level college
graduates, they might not be as confident using the competitive hiring process to locate and hire
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 94
women. Interview participants differentiated between the two hiring processes, while the survey
portion was not able to do so.
Expectancy value: Organizational importance. Results of the data from both the
interviews and the survey indicate supervisors generally understand the benefits and the value of
having women employed as engineers within their branch. This outcome indicates barriers do
not exist specific to utility-theory. Survey data did result in identified barriers with regard to
goal-theory in the organization. While supervisors felt the organization as a while valued
women engineers, they could not give objective evidence of this. Results from the survey
portion of the project showed only 22 of the 56 (39.3%) respondents indicated there are hiring
goals established for women engineers and only three of the eight (37.5%) or interviewees
positively answered as well. To note, none of the interviewees could cite where the goals were
or what the objective was.
Critical Organizational Deficiencies
Hiring process: not accessing women. Two of the primary hiring processes utilized by
the subject organization, competitive and junior professional, were validated as having unique
issues accessing and hiring women for engineering positions. Both of the data collection
methods verified that for competitive hires (mid-level and senior-level engineers), job vacancies
are only posted to the USAJobs website and results in a high probability for most applicants to
be men. A continued lack of women applying for engineering positions prevents an increase of
women obtaining employment in the organization. Job vacancies must reach a broader audience.
Interviews revealed the junior professional (entry-level engineer) hiring process does not
result in higher levels of women engineers typically. Interviewees indicated that when recruiting
tables are set up at university campuses, women do not approach the table and submit application
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 95
in high numbers. Not attracting recent graduates to the organization will result in an inability to
bring in entry-level women, which will allow for longevity of women in engineering at the
organization. Given the aforementioned 19%+ B.S. graduation rate, somewhere near that same
percentage must be representative of the newly hired entry-level engineers as well to achieve
sustained equity.
Figure 22. Survey and interview responses to hiring process’s access to women
Diversity management plan: non-existent. The organization does not have a diversity
management plan or process for supervisors to follow. Only a small number of survey
respondents (6) indicated their diversity management plan addressed women. Additionally, all
interviewees demonstrated they did not understand what diversity management is. Furthermore,
there is a high probability the six survey responses indicating they have a management plan and
that their plan addressed women is false. It is reasonable to expect, after some investigation, that
none of the branches have the type of management plan this project was looking for. If the six
respondents do indeed have a plan to manage diversity regarding women, that 10.7% of
41
0
9
0
6
2
8
0 0 0
8
2
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
USA Jobs University
Websites (entry-
level)
Commercial
Websites
Government
Programs
Junior
Professionals
(entry-level)
University Job
Fairs (entry-
level)
Survey Interviews
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 96
supervisors with a plan, across the entire organization, is inarguably deficient for expecting
effective management of the differences between the two genders. Responses from the survey
and interviews to demonstrate that nearly all participants in the project indicated a diversity
management plan does not exist consistently across the organization.
Family-friendly policies: access for women engineers. Women engineers are not given
adequate access to family-friendly work policies. Interview participants stated that engineers,
because of the nature of their profession, are not able to utilize some of the work schedules and
flexibilities that other professions in the organization are. One such family-friendly work policy
women are not allowed access to, according to the supervisors interviewed, was the telework
option allowing an employee to work from home. Supervisor P4 stated, “Engineers cannot
telework because troubleshooting a system is not easy over the phone…the engineer needs to
travel to the location to work on the system.” Engineers within many of the departments are
expected to travel regularly as part of the job. Interviewee P5 also agreed, “…the engineers
working for me travel regularly, unfortunately meaning they cannot work from home on a
regular basis to care for their children. …it comes with the job unfortunately.” Whether it is not
having family-friendly work policies in place or not given access to established policies, both of
these can result in women not choosing to work in the organization, higher turnover rates, and
unfair penalties for utilizing them in the male-dominated profession. As such, this finding is
directly in line with current literature on this topic.
An additional consideration is that not allowing engineers access to family-friendly work
policies also affects men in engineering, who may need to take advantage of the policies as well.
Basing access to family-friendly work policies on career choice within the organization is likely
not in compliance with legal requirements.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 97
Choice (entry-level engineers): not attracted to organization. Women’s not choosing
to work in the subject organization is evident primarily within the entry-level path of the junior
professional entry-level engineer. The interview piece of data collection revealed a barrier
associated with a military-based organization such as WISE experiencing difficulty attracting
women engineers. Interview participant P1 stated, “When I used to go on recruiting trips to local
universities, girls would not usually approach the table unless they were accompanying their
boyfriends, who were obtaining information for themselves. The girls would wait off to the
side.” She further indicated that she does not feel women are drawn to the organization because
they view it as being military and do not consider working in it. Participant P4 further stated,
“(the) Organization has a rigid system and it is hard for women to see value in pursuing
employment here. The military (environment) may actually be deterring women rather than
attracting them (to the organization).”
Hostile culture. The results from the survey and interviews validated the assertion that
sometimes the organizational culture can be hostile toward women in engineering. Although the
results were statistically low at 15 of 56 (26.8%) survey responses indicating the existence of
hostility and four of 8 (50%) interview participants confirming their opinion that hostility exists,
the results are significant enough to validate there is an issue. Furthermore, five of the 11
(45.5%) survey respondents identifying themselves as women answered positively to the
existence of hostility toward women in the organization. A strong position can be held specific
to the 11 women respondents being in a better position to accurately perceive hostility.
Interviewee P1 stated, “Overall, I don’t think women (engineers) are treated well.” The
supervisor added, “they (various male engineers) are tougher on women than men…. there is
little empathy for women.” Participant P4 answered the question about hostility with a simple,
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 98
“There is room for improvement.” Participant P3 stated, “I feel some men treat me as though I
need extra help that a man would not need or be offered.” Something I found interesting from
P3 was her stating, “I feel that sometimes I receive credit just for being a woman, not based on
anything I have actually done.” This statement was very honest and indicates recognition is
sometimes given when it is not deserved in that instance, almost insulting her based on merely
meeting gender criteria and not engineering accomplishments. The four participants that
indicated they did not sense any hostility directed at women did not go into detail, but merely
answered with a quick response communicating they have not noticed any hostility. I found this
also interesting because they did not say there was not any hostility, but rather they did not
“notice” or “see” any hostility. This was translated by this project to mean they neither deny nor
disbelieve hostility toward women exist.
Figure 23. Affirmative responses to a hostile work environment toward women engineers
Organizational emphasis and goals. When asked about whether the organization places
importance on increasing the representation of women in engineering at the organization, 34 of
the 56 (60.7%) from the survey and 5 of the 8 (62.5%) during the interview felt it is not a priority
10
5
4
34
6
4
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Survey (MEN)
Survey (WOMEN)
Interviews
Observed Hostility
No Observed Hostility
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 99
they are aware of. The three interviewees who felt the organization makes it a priority could not
provide objective evidence; they only stated they felt it was important to leadership. Goal-theory
asserts when people have a goal to work toward, performance related to established goals will
increase. Without establishing a goal for increased representation of women in engineering
positions, supervisors will not be motivated to increase representation within their branches nor
be aware what their level of success is.
Table 7
Summary of key KMO assumption findings
Type Knowledge Validated
Declarative
Supervisors do not understand the organizational culture can
sometimes be hostile toward women in engineering.
Yes
Procedural
Supervisors do not know how to (from interview) nor have a
process (from survey) for managing diversity within their
branches.
Yes
Procedural
Supervisors do not know how to locate women, specifically for
engineering positions.
Yes
Motivation
Self-Efficacy
Supervisors are not confident in their ability to locate and hire
women engineers.
Partial
Expectancy Value
Supervisors do not feel increasing women engineer
representation is important to the organization.
Yes
Organizational
Hiring Process
The current hiring process is not adequately reaching potential
women engineer candidates and therefore women are not
appearing on the interview list.
Yes
Diversity
Management
The organization is not utilizing diversity management practices
to retain women engineers.
Yes
Choice
The organization is not presenting itself as a desirable option for
women engineers.
Yes
Hostility
The culture can sometimes be hostile toward women in
engineering.
Yes
Importance
The organization does not emphasize hiring more women
engineers through communication or goal setting.
Yes
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 100
Summary
Results of the project demonstrated a high probability there are indeed some barriers
preventing women from obtaining engineering positions within the subject organization and
potentially causing increased turnover for women in engineering positions. The project found
multiple organizational barriers contributing to the lack of knowledge among supervisors about
how to increase the hiring of women engineers and effectively manage that category of diversity
to prevent increased instances of turnover and hostility.
The project successfully validated the likely existence of 13 of the assumed KMO
barriers contributing to some degree to the gender employment gap in the subject organization.
Removing these barriers will close the gap and reach an equitable level of representation in the
subject organization. The data indicate many of these validated barriers can be reduced through
a re-developed and increased utilization of current hiring options and processes. Additionally,
the organization’s executive leadership may further remove barriers through an effective
organization-wide communication and education campaign to educate the workforce about
women in engineering. The following chapter on recommendations will further discuss and
address potential solutions to increase the representation of women in engineering positions at
the organization.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 101
CHAPTER FIVE: RECOMMENDATIONS
Recommendations for Addressing Validated KMO Influences
Knowledge Component Overview
The four knowledge types, divided into three descriptive categories, consist of factual,
conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive knowledge types that may create barriers to achieving
organizational performance objectives (Bloom, Engelhart, Furst, Hill, & Krathwohl, 1956;
Krathwohl, 2002).
The three knowledge type definitions:
1) Declarative knowledge is the understanding of discrete elements of content (factual) and
the organized and complex knowledge of things (conceptual) (Clark and Estes, 2008;
Bloom, Engelhart, Furst, Hill, & Krathwohl, 1956; Krathwohl, 2002).
2) Procedural knowledge is the understanding of how to complete a specific task or process
(Clark and Estes, 2008; Bloom, Engelhart, Furst, Hill, & Krathwohl, 1956; Krathwohl,
2002).
3) Metacognitive knowledge is the awareness an individual has of their own understanding
of a task and its processes (Clark and Estes, 2008; Bloom, Engelhart, Furst, Hill, &
Krathwohl, 1956; Krathwohl, 2002).
Attempting to isolate the potential knowledge barriers influencing social behaviors within an
organization or any social setting, requires understanding appropriate categorization into one of
the aforementioned knowledge types. Validating the existence of knowledge barriers and
understanding which types are involved is important to accurately identify and propose adequate
solutions to the barrier(s).
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 102
Knowledge Influences
Data collection from the survey and interview methods revealed several types of
knowledge influencers contributing to the performance gap within the subject organization.
Clark and Estes (2008) present the assertion that without procedural, declarative, metacognitive,
and conceptual knowledge, goals attainment proves difficult because appropriate action may not
be taken. In other words, one must understand what problem exists to generate the appropriate
action(s) to correct it. Before providing training or education specifically to address deficient
knowledge, Mayer (2011) suggests having learners identify his or her prior knowledge before
training occurs. This approach promotes metacognition to allow for increased learning of the
new information. Schraw and McCrudden (2006) further suggest that when information is
learned meaningfully and is connected to any prior knowledge the learner has, he or she will
store the new information more quickly and with increased accuracy. Table 8 organizes the
knowledge influences contributing to the gender employment gap, including recommendations
for addressing and correcting the problem.
Declarative knowledge. The two declarative knowledge deficiencies validated by the
data collected were:
1) Benefits of having increased female diversity in engineering (Choi, 2011; Foldy, 2004)
2) Challenges women experience in engineering positions at the organization
Education and training are both essential components for ensuring supervisors within the
WISE organization have the knowledge necessary to bridge the gap in understanding. Clark and
Estes (2008) suggests if an individual does not possess adequate knowledge of a process, they
will not recognize there is an issue and will not seek to gain additional knowledge. Providing
education to the supervisors about specific benefits that having more women engineers in the
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 103
organization provide (Choi, 2011; Foldy, 2004), supervisors might be more eager to increase
their representation. Additionally, WISE will need to ensure supervisors understand the various
workplace environment barriers that lead to retention issues for women in male-dominated
careers (Reskin, 2003; Ridgeway & Correll, 2004; Faulkner, 2009). Table 8 organizes these
declarative knowledge influences and shows their validation status and priority level.
Procedural knowledge. Supervisors within the organization must possess the
procedural knowledge for locating and hiring women for engineering positions to promote an
increase in their representation within the organization. Lack of this procedural knowledge of
specific hiring processes may prevent consistent goal achievement (Clark & Estes, 2008). The
principle asserted by Schraw & McCrudden (2006) states when information is learned
meaningfully and allows the learner to connect the new information with prior knowledge; he or
she is able to learn more quickly. Furthermore, the way the learner organizes the knowledge
influences how they learn and apply the gained knowledge (Schraw & McCrudden, 2006).
This project posits supervisors should not be required to know how to go outside of the
hiring process to find women. The hiring process supervisors are asked to initiate should include
organizations and entities that access and bring together women in this profession. As such,
addressing hiring process inadequacies can eliminate this lack of supervisor knowledge as a
barrier to increasing the representation of women in engineering. Developing an effective
education approach and including job aids for the hiring process may lead to an increase in
accessing and hiring women for engineering positions.
Metacognitive knowledge. When an individual is not aware of his or her own biases
toward women, the workplace hostilities facing women, and his or her own lack of
understanding the hiring process and available avenues to hire, that individual will not seek
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 104
training and/or education, ultimately not addressing the issues facing women resulting from
simple ignorance (Krathwohl, 2002). The consequence of this deficiency in metacognitive
awareness will likely be continued hiring and retention issues for women in engineering and
other STEM-related positions. By providing the necessary education to the supervisors and job
aids to assist with the hiring avenues available to them and the associated processes, gender-
equity goal attainment will increase through awareness of and correction to their knowledge gap
(Clark & Estes, 2008).
Table 8
Summary of Knowledge Influences and Recommendations
Knowledge Influence
Validated
(Y, N)
Principle and Citation
Context-Specific
Recommendation
Supervisors do not know
the challenges women
engineers in the
organization face.
(Declarative)
Y
Without the required
declarative knowledge,
goal achievement is
hindered (Clark et al.,
2008; Krathwohl, 2002).
Provide education to
supervisors about specific
challenges women face in
engineering to improve
equity adequately.
Supervisors do not
understand how to
manage diversity.
(Procedural)
Y
An individual must have
the knowledge
necessary to understand
the complexity
surrounding a concept or
idea (Krathwohl, 2002).
Provide information to
supervisors about
approaches to managing
diversity.
Supervisors do not
understand how to locate
and hire women
engineers. (Procedural)
Y
Information learned
meaningfully and
connected with prior
knowledge is stored
more quickly and
remembered more
accurately because it is
elaborated with prior
learning (Schraw &
McCrudden, 2006).
Provide training and a job
aid to supervisors about the
process for locating and
hiring more women for
engineering positions.
Providing a job aid will
also assist supervisors with
the hiring process.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 105
Motivation Component Overview
Motivation deficiencies can ultimately lead to low performance in the workplace
(Bandura, 1997; Clark & Estes, 2008). Clark and Estes (2008) suggest motivation consists of
our willingness to work toward a goal, keep us moving toward that goal, and ultimately it
determines the level of effort we give to accomplishing that goal. Motivation is comprised of
three indices: active choice involving an individual deciding whether to engage in a task;
persistence, consisting of choosing to continue with pursuing a task; and mental effort, or level
of energy to seek new knowledge to apply toward task completion (Clark & Estes, 2008).
Three primary motivational constructs exist among the supervisors at the WISE organization.
These constructs may be preventing successfully hiring female engineers within the organization.
As laid out in Table 16, the constructs preventing achievement of the stakeholder global goal is
expectancy value theory, followed by self-efficacy theory, and concluding with goal theory.
Data collection from the survey and interview methods revealed several motivation
influencers lacking, thus contributing to the performance gap. Clark and Estes (2008) asserts
goal attainment proves more difficult when motivation is lacking in those responsible to achieve
identified goals. Table 16 shows the motivation influence affecting the stakeholder of focus,
along with the theory and context-specific recommendations.
Motivation Influences
Self-efficacy. Originating from social cognitive theory, self-efficacy consists of the
judgment or belief one has about their own ability specific to learning new knowledge or
performing a task with successful outcomes (Bandura, 1997; Pajares, 2006). Pajares (2006)
suggests self-efficacy is at the core of human motivation. If an individual does not believe he or
she has the ability to succeed at a given task, the goal of completing that specific task is typically
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 106
not realized (Pajares, 2006). With greater self-efficacy comes an increased likelihood of the
individual making a choice to undertake the task, persist until completion, and apply sufficient
mental effort to accomplish the task successfully (Bandura, 1997). Stated in another way,
enhanced learning and motivation occur when learners have positive expectancies for a
successful outcome (Pajares, 2006).
Supervisors need to feel confident in their ability to locate and hire women for
engineering positions within the WISE organization. The supervisor’s lack of self-efficacy is
partially contributing to the inequitable representation of female engineers in the organization.
Using hiring models that are clear, concise, and practicable will assist in building the self-
efficacy of the supervisors and lead to enhanced motivation because of the increased confidence
level. After initial increases in the self-efficacy of the supervisors through a clear hiring model
and approach, further increases in self-efficacy is made possible by setting initial hiring goals at
achievable levels to allow supervisors success in hiring women for engineering positions. As
listed in Table 9, these two recommendations can assist with increasing motivation for goal
achievement to hire more women within each respective branch and in the organization as a
whole.
Expectancy value. The second influencer of motivation is the perceived level of value
supervisors have for locating and hiring women for open engineering positions in the
organization. Expectancy value is determined by four concepts; intrinsic value, attainment
value, utility value, and engagement cost (Eccles, 2009), as described in chapter two with more
detail. This theory involves an individual making a decision to pursue a task based on his or her
belief they can succeed and that task completion will provide value and therefore worth
undertaking.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 107
Attainment value. The link a supervisor perceives between his or her own beliefs about
women’s ability in engineering and the task of bringing more women into the organization for
engineering positions is contributing to the motivation gap, and ultimately to minimal effort put
toward locating and hiring more women. This phenomenon is linked to Eccles’ (2009) assertion
that when an individual’s beliefs do not align with the task, the result is low attainment value
leading to a decrease in motivation. To remedy this problem and increase motivation, the
organization can provide education to the supervisors regarding ways a more gender-diverse
workforce is beneficial to the performance of the organization and will contribute to increased
equity within the workforce.
Utility value. Utility value deals with the supervisor’s beliefs of how applicable a task is
to his or her own perceived goals and/or plans (Eccles, 2009). For supervisors in particular, the
determination of goals often times originates from higher-level management and the
organization’s executive leadership. Therefore, if supervisors do not see the task of hiring more
women for engineering positions as having alignment with the organization’s expectations from
him or her, supervisors will likely not place high utility value on hiring more women. To
address this misalignment, a recommendation is for the organization to model the desired values,
the importance of having women as engineers, and that hiring more women is desired.
Effectively modeling this behavior will allow supervisors to see the organization’s interest in
gender equity, therefore potentially leading to an increase in motivation.
Goal theory. Yough & Anderman (2006) state that by focusing on mastery, individual
improvement, learning, and progress, an individual’s motivation is positively affected.
Additionally, research strongly suggest goals motivate and direct individuals (Pintrich, 2003) and
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 108
that by encouraging people to set specific goals (Dembo & Eaton, 2000) and measurable
performance goals (Clark & Estes, 2008), motivation and goal achievement increases.
The organization must establish a goal for achieving a specified representation percentage for
women within a specified timeframe. To achieve identified goals and increase motivation to
achieve the goals, the suggested approach is to set hiring objectives for women engineers and
report progress monthly to executive leadership through use of metrics. Additionally,
encouraging and forming cooperative and collaborative groups to address the goal of hiring more
women for engineering positions in the organization may further increase motivation to succeed.
Pintrich (2003) asserts that cooperative and collaborative groups provide opportunities to attain
academic and social goals, ultimately improving motivation. After the motivation piece is
perceived sufficient for goal attainment, the focus of improvement can transition to
recommending changes to organizational barriers preventing attainment of identified goals.
Table 9
Summary of Motivation Influences and Recommendations
Motivation Influence
Validated
(Y, N)
Motivation Principle and Citation
Context-Specific
Recommendation
Expectancy Value:
Supervisors do not
feel hiring more
women for
engineering
positions is
important to the
organization’s
executive
leadership.
Y
Learning and motivation are
enhanced if the learner values
the task (Eccles, 2006).
Models who are credible and
similar (e.g., gender,
culturally appropriate) can
foster positive values
(Pajares, 2006).
Executive leadership must
communicate and model
the importance of having
more women engineers,
helping supervisors value
employing women more.
Self-Efficacy:
Supervisors do not
feel confident in
their ability to locate
and hire women
engineers.
N
High self-efficacy positively
influences motivation
(Pajares, 2006).
Learning and motivation are
enhanced when learners have
Develop hiring models
that are clear and
achievable to build self-
efficacy and enhance
motivation.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 109
positive expectancies for
success (Pajares, 2006).
Set close, concrete and
challenging goals that allow
the learner to experience
success at tasks (Pajares,
2006).
Set initial hiring goals at
achievable levels to
promote supervisor
success in hiring and
retaining women
engineers.
Goals:
There is no
supervisor goal for
increasing the
representation of
women engineers.
Y
Focusing on mastery,
individual improvement,
learning, and progress
promotes positive motivation
(Yough & Anderman, 2006).
Use task, reward, and
evaluation structures that
promote mastery, learning,
effort, progress, and self-
improvement standards and
less reliance on social
comparison or norm-
reference standards (Pintrich,
2003)
Establish a group to assist
supervisors with hiring
and retaining women.
Promote mastery of hiring
through tasking, rewards,
and structures that
promote supervisor
learning and motivation to
increase women’s
representation.
Goals:
There is no
established goal for
achieving a specific
percentage of
female engineer
representation
across the
organization.
Y
Goals motivate and direct
individuals (Pintrich, 2003).
Encourage people to set
specific goals (Dembo &
Eaton, 2000) and measureable
performance goals (Clark &
Estes, 2008)
Cooperative and collaborative
groups provide opportunities
to attain academic and social
goals (Pintrich, 2003).
Set a goal for women’s
representation and report
metrics to executive
leadership monthly.
Encourage and form
cooperative and
collaborative groups to
address the goal of
employing more female
engineers.
Organization Component Overview
Clark and Estes (2008) describes organizational barriers as the formal or informal
policies, processes, or resources in the organization adversely affecting performance and goal
achievement. An additional and important element associated with acting as a barrier for
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 110
successful execution of work processes is the culture of the organization (Clark & Estes, 2008).
When the culture of the organization interferes with goal achievement, the culture will need to be
changed to allow for necessary performance increases. However, changing organizational
culture is not a simple task. Clark and Estes (2008, p. 111) suggest a few questions to assist in
determining the existence of organizational barriers:
1. In what ways is this organization different and unique?
2. How and when do you get performance feedback?
3. What aspects of your organization and its goals do people here value most?
4. When major changes occur, who drives the change and what is a typical result?
Answers to these questions will help guide the project in determining what organizational
barriers need correcting to close the performance gap effectively. Other types of organizational
barriers exist in addition to organizational culture, including hiring processes, which can include
subconscious cognitive biases. This bias can affect the organization, especially when
supervisors, who are typically the most involved in hiring employees, have the cognitive biases
regarding women.
Data collection from the survey and interview methods revealed several types of
organizational barriers contributing to the performance gap and preventing women from
achieving equity in the engineering profession at WISE. Clark and Estes (2008) suggests when
the culture of an organization interferes with goal achievement, changing that dysfunctional
culture must become a priority. Not doing so would greatly hinder or prevent progress toward
closing the performance gap. Table 3 lists the validated organizational barriers found to exist
within the subject organization resulting from the data collected.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 111
Organizational Influences
Turnover. Validation failed for the assumption that women engineers are leaving the
organization at a higher rate than their male counterparts are. Furthermore, the organization does
not conduct exit interviews on a consistent basis to enable analysis of the reasons given for
women engineers leaving the organization. There was also no data pertaining to the number of
men in engineering that chose to leave the organization to use as a comparison with the survey
data collected about women engineers. Additional research will be required to further develop
and establish this assumed barrier at the subject organization.
Gender schemas and cognitive biases. Although only partial validation occurred for
gender schema and cognitive bias, its existence could still be preventing supervisors from hiring
more women for engineering positions within the organization. Chavez, Duran, Baker, Avila &
Wallerstein (2008) suggests effective leaders are aware of biases and prejudices that occur in the
organization at the individual and structural levels. Effective leaders must continuously
communicate the importance of gender diversity within all levels of the organization (DiTomaso,
Post & Parks-Yancy, 2007; Stevens, Plaut & Sanchez-Burks, 2008). Both of these closely
related influencers suggest when males hold the majority of supervisory positions and therefore
conduct the majority of the hiring, assistance with recognizing cognitive bias through training
can effectively reduce bias during the hiring process. Additionally, increasing the number of
women in engineering supervisory positions may also increase promotions and mobility for
women in engineering and other STEM-related fields.
Choi (2011), in his study of women in the federal civilian workforce, found women may
be disadvantaged in the workplace based on a gender schema of role differences between men
and women and may cause the gaps in representation and advancement for women in some
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 112
federal STEM-related positions. However, this theory does not explain why the Federal
government, as a whole, has a higher percentage of civilian women in engineering than the
private sector has. Gender schemas become more relevant in the workplace for male-dominated
occupations, such as engineering, where females typically receive less favorable evaluations than
their male counterparts (Reskin, 2003; Ridgeway & Correll, 2004; Faulkner, 2009) and male
employers selecting members of their own gender for promotions (Reskin, 2003). Specific to
cognitive biases and hiring, Gorman (2005) asserts hiring officials create their own subjective
social reality based on a perception females are unable to succeed in the male-dominated
profession from a perceived lack of ability. This can result in limited occupational mobility for
women when the gender composition of hiring supervisors is predominantly male, as found by
Chambliss and Uggen (2000).
Beyond bias identification in employees, effective leaders must also acknowledge bias
and prejudice within themselves. Supervisors must protect the organization from any negative
impacts resulting from bias, in addition to recognizing and addressing instances of micro-
aggression and other covert expressions of bias and prejudice against women. Reducing
instances of the validated gender schemas and cognitive biases specific to women in engineering
requires appropriate solutions, which may include one or more of the following:
1) Create and enforce policies that protect women from gender bias and lead to
increased representation
2) Supervisors, in collaboration with the HRO, must identify ways in which biases might
be present in the current hiring process
3) Leaders must commit to ensuring high-level positions also represent diversity, equity,
and inclusion
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 113
4) Pilot conversations with outside organizations that have successfully hired diverse
candidates, which might result in advantageous approaches to increase gender equity
5) Leaders must persistently communicate the benefits of diversity in the workplace
Hiring Practices. Current hiring practices do not appear to effectively be reaching an
adequate number of women for open engineering positions. Research asserts that highly
effective leaders demonstrate a commitment to the value of diversity through inclusive action
and promotion of an organizational culture that stimulates equity and inclusion to cultivate an
atmosphere where diversity is viewed as an asset to both the organization and its stakeholders
(Angeline, 2011; Prieto, Phipps & Osiri, 2009). Chavez, Duran, Baker, Avila, and Wallerstein
(2008) further assert that effective leaders are aware of the historical and socio-cultural context
of the organization and its community. These assertions suggest leadership must understand and
acknowledge the organization’s cultural setting and ensure the hiring process is not negatively
impacted by it, thus allowing essential inclusion and equitable representation for women.
Studies by McGuire (2000) and Glass & Minnotte (2010) suggest current hiring practices,
specific to job posting locations and the language used in the advertisements, are not effectively
reaching potential female candidates for open positions in organizations, especially in male-
dominated professions such as engineering. To remedy the potentially ineffective hiring process,
leaders must determine what strategies are necessary to ensure the decision-making process is
inclusive of all candidates at every step in the hiring process. It is likely the organization will
need a more proactive approach to hiring engineers for ensuring women are reached with job
opening announcements. A passive approach that entails waiting for women to apply has not
proven effective so far. Furthermore, executive leadership must also determine if the
organization is enabling personnel with the least amount of power, (women engineers in this
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 114
case) to have input into organizational decisions, specifically regarding the approach to increase
representation for women.
Family-friendly work policies. Data collected suggest a lack of access to family-
friendly work policies might be preventing some women from choosing to work at the
organization and causing turnover, specific to women in engineering positions. Bensimon
(2005) proposes effective leaders use disaggregated data to make informed decisions and track
the impact of their decisions on equity and access in organizational practice. This assertion
translates into a need for the organizational leadership to collect, analyze, and use data pertaining
to whether or not women decline engineering positions or leave the organization altogether
because of difficulties related to inadequate and/or inaccessible family-friendly policies.
Single mothers, for example, rely significantly on the availability of family-friendly
policies to care for their young children while maintaining their position to allow continued
support of their children (Mason & Goulden, 2004; Simard et al., 2008). Having these policies
in place is critical for retaining women in the organization. Studies by Fouad et al. (2011),
Heilbronner (2013), and Mason & Gould (2004) have demonstrated women often leave STEM
careers because they perceive an incompatibility between workplace expectations and family
responsibilities. Simard, et al. (2008) found that even with family-friendly policies in place, the
women who utilize them often suffer a “family penalty” significantly more often than men do.
This finding suggests sufficient family-friendly policies need to be available for women to use
and without a penalty for doing so. One suggested solution to the family-friendly policy issue is
to use available data to determine if family-friendly work policies are indeed sufficient or if more
needs to be done. One approach for this type of data is to survey other organizations in both the
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 115
public and private sector to learn about currently available policies that may be appropriate for
inclusion at the WISE organization.
Mentors. A lack of female mentors might be contributing to decreased retention of
women in engineering. According to Fix, B., and Sias, P. M. (2006), effective leaders know how
to build strong communication skills among members of an organization to build capacity.
These strong communications are needed for specific groups of people as well, especially when
the group in question, women in engineering, makes up a small percentage of the workforce.
This homogenous composition increases the need for a mentor that achieved success in the same
environment. Although this could not be validated by this project, it is nonetheless important to
ensure this underrepresented group has access to mentors to help reduce turnover resulting from
challenges women face in the organization. Research by Bhatia and Amati (2010) and Hunt
(2015 & 2016) show women in STEM professions exhibit increased persistence to excel and
decreased turnover intention, or desire to leave, when they have a woman mentor available to
give career advice and confide in specific to employment in a profession, such as engineering,
where men substantially outnumber women.
Hostile work environment. A work environment hostile toward women in STEM
positions can contribute to a low representation of women because of higher turnover in those
professions, and more specifically within engineering at the subject organization. Bensimon
(2005) suggests that effective leaders address institutional policies and practices that create
barriers for equity. If the work environment proves hostile toward women, leaders must address
the hostilities to ensure removal and prevention of any related barriers. This may include
changing policies or practices shown as contributing to the inequity.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 116
Without the required knowledge of how to manage diversity and ensure fair treatment for
women, the organization may not be able to prevent the increased turnover rate tendency of
women in engineering positions. Failing to address and properly manage diversity can many
times lead to hostility toward the minority group, in this case women engineers. This project
validated some instances of perceived hostility toward women in the workplace through an
analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data collected from the surveys and interviews.
Organizational practice and policy shifts may prove considerably effective at addressing the
cultural impediments that some, if not all, women are facing in the organization. Table 10
summarizes the influencers and the recommendations to address them.
An additional related organizational barrier that might be present, based on data gathered
during the interview portion of the project, is that of internalized oppression. Internalized
oppression is defined as an oppressed group incorporating and accepting the prejudices against
them by the dominant group. In the context of this project, the oppressed group is the women
engineers and the dominant group, male engineers. This internalized oppression, if present,
consists of feelings of powerlessness, inferiority, resignation, and isolation (Pheterson, 1986;
Szymanski & Henrichs-Beck, 2014).
Table 10
Summary of Organization Influences and Recommendations
Organizational
Influence
Validated
(Y, N)
Principle and Citation
Context-Specific
Recommendation
Gender schema and
cognitive bias
against women
exists within the
organization. Y
Effective leaders are aware
of biases and prejudices
that occur in the
organization at the
individual and structural
levels. They acknowledge
their own biases and
prejudice and protect the
organization from their
Communicate the
accomplishments of
women in engineering and
professions.
Create policies that
protect women from bias.
Make a commitment to
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 117
negative impact. They also
recognize and address
micro-aggression and other
covert ways of expressing
bias and prejudice.
(Chavez, Duran, Baker,
Avila & Wallerstein, 2008)
Effective leaders promote
diversity at the highest
levels of the organization.
(DiTomaso, Post & Parks-
Yancy, 2007; Stevens,
Plaut & Sanchez-Burks,
2008)
ensuring that high-level
positions represent
diversity, equity, and
inclusion.
Learn from organizations
that have successfully
hired diverse candidates.
Continually speak about
the benefits of diversity in
the workplace.
The current hiring
process is not
adequately
reaching potential
women engineer
candidates and
therefore women
are not appearing
on the interview
list.
Y
Effective leaders
demonstrate a commitment
to valuing diversity through
inclusive action. They
promote an organizational
culture that promotes equity
and inclusion and cultivate
an atmosphere where
diversity is viewed as an
asset to the organization
and its stakeholders.
(Angeline, 2011; Prieto,
Phipps & Osiri, 2009)
Effective leaders are aware
of the organization’s and
community’s historical and
socio-cultural context.
(Chavez, Duran, Baker,
Avila & Wallerstein, 2008)
Determine what strategies
are in place to ensure that
the decision-making
process is inclusive at
every step, including the
hiring process.
Determine if the
organization is ensuring
that staff members with
the least amount of power
have a voice in
organizational decisions.
There is inadequate
access to family-
friendly work
policies allowed to
women engineers
at the organization.
Y
Effective leaders use
disaggregated data to make
informed decisions. They
track the impact of their
decisions on equity and
access in organizational
practice. (Bensimon, 2005)
Using collected data,
determine if family-
friendly work policies are
sufficient and ensure
women have access to
utilize them.
The organization is
not utilizing
diversity
management
Y
Effective leaders use
disaggregated data to make
informed decisions. They
track the impact of their
The organization must
develop and utilize a
diversity management
process for all areas of the
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 118
practices to retain
women engineers.
decisions on equity and
access in organizational
practice. (Bensimon, 2005)
organization to use.
Women are leaving
WISE engineering
careers prior to
retirement.
N
Effective leaders address
institutional policies and
practices that create barriers
for equity. (Bensimon,
2005)
Routinely conduct exit
interviews and ensure
resulting data is quantified
and analyzed to address
areas demonstrating
increased turnover, thus
helping ensure diversity.
The organization is
not presenting
itself as a desirable
option for women
engineers.
Y
Effective leaders are aware
of the organization’s and
community’s historical and
socio-cultural context.
(Chavez, Duran, Baker,
Avila & Wallerstein, 2008)
Ensure the organization
makes itself more
compatible for women
engineers through
branding and marketing
during career fairs and
vacancy advertisement.
A hostile work
environment
toward women in
engineering exists
within the
organization.
Y
Effective leaders address
institutional policies and
practices that create barriers
for equity. (Bensimon,
2005)
Use quantitative and
qualitative data to
determine if a hostile
work environment exists
for women and institute
policy to address this
cultural deficiency.
Integrated Implementation and Evaluation Plan
Implementation and Evaluation Framework
The framework being used to implement and evaluate the proposed program is based on the New
World Kirkpatrick Model (Kirkpatrick, 2016), which takes the four levels of evaluation and
assesses the program in reverse, beginning with the desired results. For the recommended
solutions of this project, the specific approach for evaluation during the implementation is as
follows:
1) Level 1: Reaction – both during supervisor training and during implementation of the
new hiring process, utilize formative surveys to get immediate feedback and make
adjustments as needed (Kirkpatrick, 2016) to help increase program effectiveness and
enable maximum increase to women’s representation.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 119
2) Level 2: Learning – to evaluate supervisor learning, a combination of formative and
summative evaluation will be used, consisting of knowledge checks throughout the
training and culminating with a test at the conclusion of each section of training.
After training completion, survey administration will assess the knowledge and skill
of the supervisors using accomplishments and/or difficulties they have experienced
with implementation of what they learned during training.
3) Level 3: Behavior – Kirkpatrick (2016) describes behavior as the degree to which
participants in the change effort or training apply what they have learned once they
are back on the job. To properly assess the behavior outcome, we will define what it
looks like and then evaluate the level at which the behavior is demonstrated.
4) Level 4: Results – to assess goal attainment, or the results, the project establishes
these desired results. In this case, the equitable representation of women in
engineering is the primary result desired.
Organizational Purpose, Need, and Expectations
Keeping with subject organization’s mission to remain at the forefront of what they do for the
navy (WISE HRO, 2016); it must also ensure an equitable environment for women within the
engineering profession. Given the current engineering workforce is composed of roughly only
15% women, increasing and maintaining equity is imperative to achieving a diverse workforce
while still accomplishing the organizational mission.
Achieving increased and equitable diversity between genders begins with the stakeholder
group, the supervisors, reaching their initial goal of increasing the representation of women in
engineering by 5% within the first year of introducing the change initiative. Accomplishment of
this initial increase across the organization will bring the overall representation within WISE
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 120
closer to the organization-wide goal of a 5 - 10% increase. Increasing the 15% representation of
women by 10% will bring the representation to 25%, which is above the 20% across the federal
government and the nearly 20% of Bachelor’s degrees awarded to women in engineering
disciplines each year.
The supervisors are expected to obtain the necessary knowledge and are motivated to
increase the representation of women for achieving the desired outcome. Executive leadership in
the organization must remove any existing organizational barriers to facilitate the hiring of more
women and prevent elevated turnover intention. An equitable representation of women is not
possible without successful retention of the women that are hired, which would result in a failed
change initiative if potential causes for employee turnover were not taken into consideration.
Level 4: Results and Leading Indicators
The leading indicator showing progress toward the end goal of equitable representation
for women in engineering begins with verifying job advertisements are reaching female
candidates. Without women’s awareness of engineering job openings and the potential benefits
of being an engineer in a military-related organization, increasing the representation at WISE
will be virtually impossible. After validation of this leading indicator, the next indicator is a
verified increase in the number of women employed as engineers across the organization. First,
this initial increase will establish validate communication of job vacancies to potential women
candidates. Second, indicators would also be that more women are selected after the interview
process, thus contributing to an upward trend and signifying the organization is moving toward
the end-goal of equitable representation for women. Lastly, a critical measurement to consider
early in the change initiative is the turnover rate for women in engineering. Retaining women
currently employed within the organization is crucial for long-term success and sustaining
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 121
women’s representation. Increasing the number of female job applicants along with the
increased selection and retention of women will indicate the stakeholder groups are achieving the
desired outcomes needed to improve performance. Table 11 lists the identified external and
internal outcomes, metrics, and methods necessary for the success of the organization.
Table 11
Outcomes, Metrics, and Methods for External and Internal Outcomes
Outcome Metric(s) Method(s)
External Outcomes
Recognition by
government agencies
Instances in reports HR collects government reports
Increased female
engineering graduate
access to entry-level job
announcements
Number of universities at which
WISE posted job openings
A monthly report showing the
name of the university and
where the opening was posted
(e.g. the school’s jobs website)
will be tracked by the HR Dept.
Increased number of
women submitting
applications into the
competitive hiring process
Number of applications
uploaded into the system
A report showing the number of
women that applied on each job
advertisement
Internal Outcomes
An increase in the number
of female engineering
candidates for job
openings
The number of women
interviewed for each engineering
vacancy
Report generation showing the
percentage of interviewees that
were women for each
engineering job opening
A decrease in instances of
bias and gender schema
demonstrated by
employees in the
workplace
Number of men demonstrating
bias and/or gender schema
Administer a bias/gender
schema-specific survey 6
months after training
An increase in retention of
females in engineering
positions
Number and percentage of
females leaving WISE
Review exit interview data and
metrics after 6 months and 1
year following training
Increased number of
women engineers in the
organization
Number of women engineers in
each branch as a number and a
percentage
Monthly report
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 122
Level 3: Behavior
Critical behaviors. As Table 12 exhibits, supervisors must demonstrate several critical
behaviors that are conducive not only to hiring more women into the organization, but once
hired, must be continued to prevent turnover. Some of these critical behaviors include, but are
not limited to, the following:
1) Actively and effectively recruit from locations and through means that reach an
equitable number of female engineers
2) Effectively address any cognitive bias and gender schema directed at women in
engineering positions
3) Allow women to utilize family-friendly work policies without penalty
4) Maintain equitable representation for women in engineering positions, thus increasing
the probability for women to attain higher-level positions such as executive
leadership positions inherently for engineers
Table 12
Critical Behaviors, Metrics, Methods, and Timing for Evaluation
Critical Behavior Metric(s)
Method(s)
Timing
Interview and hire
more women for
engineering positions.
Number of women
applicants for open
positions compared to
number hired.
Report showing the
number of women vs. men
applicants for each
advertised position,
number hired, and reasons
for any differences.
Quarterly
Counter any validated
challenges women
face.
Data showing
opinions of employees
regarding females in
engineering positions.
Administer an anonymous
survey to employees,
including supervisors
tasked with hiring and
managing women
engineers.
Annually
Actively promote and
manage diversity in
the workplace.
Number of women
engineers employed in
each branch.
Report the number of
engineers in each branch
and the % that are women.
Quarterly
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 123
Required drivers. For supervisors to pursue the desired outcomes listed in Table 11 and
achieve them, they must feel there is value in pursuing them, must understand the importance of
increasing the representation of women in engineering, and must understand the organizational
barriers preventing effectively hiring and retaining women in this male-dominated profession.
Moreover, the organization has a responsibility to remove any barriers preventing women
engineers from entering and staying with the organization and improve the hiring to reach the
target group sufficiently.
Related directly to the retention of women in engineering positions, the organization must
not only ensure family-friendly policies are in place to assist mothers in balancing work and life
responsibilities, but that those policies are accessible to women in engineering. The organization
also has a responsibility to motivate the supervisor stakeholders to strive for women’s equity
through reinforcement, encouragement through goal-setting and rewarding goal achievement.
Table 13 lists the drivers required to support the critical behaviors required of the supervisors in
the organization.
Table 13
Required Drivers to Support Critical Behaviors
Method(s) Timing
Critical Behaviors Supported
1, 2, 3 Etc.
Reinforcing
Job aid for managing diversity within
the organization and branch level
Continuous 2, 3
Metrics showing women’s
representation in engineering across
the organization
Quarterly 1, 2, 3
Requirement for representation of
women engineers in each branch
maintained at an established level
Semi-annually 1, 2, 3
Encouraging
Executive leadership to meet with
supervisors to communicate the
importance of gender diversity in
Semi-annually 1, 2, 3
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 124
engineering
Metrics showing data from exit
interviews of women engineers
Quarterly 1, 2, 3
Rewarding
Recognition for branches with
notable improvements in hiring and
retaining women engineers
Semi-annually 1, 2, 3
Incentivize increasing the number of
women interviewed for each vacancy
Quarterly 1
Monitoring. Kirkpatrick (2016) reiterates that without a system of accountability, even
those in an organization with good intentions and in agreement with a change initiative, many
employees easily go back to previous way of doing things. To prevent this and establish
accountability for ensuring the continuation of desired behaviors, organizations have a number of
assessment techniques available. Some of the more applicable include intervention-like
interviews with the women engineers and supervisors, a dashboard giving visibility into the
progress made toward goal achievement, surveys of the workforce, and metrics of several key
performance indicators, once established.
Level 2: Learning
Learning goals. At the conclusion of the weeklong training program, supervisors will
know how to do the following:
1) Describe the challenges that exist for women engineers in an organization
(Declarative knowledge - factual)
2) Describe the benefits women engineers provide to the organization (Declarative
knowledge - conceptual)
3) Describe the processes to effectively access and hire women engineers. (Procedural
knowledge)
4) Apply the steps to effectively manage diversity in their branch (Procedural
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 125
knowledge)
5) Apply the steps to identify and address hostility toward women in their branch
(Procedural knowledge)
6) Apply the steps to utilize self-reflection to identify when he or she is exhibiting
cognitive bias or gender schema (Metacognitive knowledge)
7) Continuously reflect on the goal approach and achievement for hiring women
engineers. (Metacognitive knowledge)
8) Continuously reflect on potential retention problems with women in engineering
positions (Metacognitive knowledge)
9) Value employing women as engineers (EVMT)
10) Be confident in hiring women engineers (Self-Efficacy)
11) Be confident in managing women engineers (Self-Efficacy)
The program. The approach recommended for the organization starts with the HR
department revising the current hiring process and local policies to assist with enabling
supervisors to have more success with hiring women for engineering positions. The revised
process should ensure an increased number of women are made aware that engineering openings
exist at the organization. Results of the data collections suggest a perception that generally
women engineers do not look at the www.USAJobs.com website for careers. The new process
should ensure more venues regularly receive job openings for posting to them.
The second step in administering the program entails providing training to the supervisors
to show them the revised hiring policy and process, demonstrate the re-designed hiring and
recruiting process to access more women in engineering fields, and ways to identify and remove
any organizational barriers preventing women from being selected and potentially causing them
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 126
to leave the organization. The training covers the background of the problem, the importance of
addressing the problem, and the new policies in place to enable correcting the problem.
Furthermore, the training will cover all identified knowledge, motivation, and organizational
barriers discussed in the literature included in chapter three of this dissertation.
The HR professionals in the WISE organization will teach the classes. These individuals
will have recently developed the new processes and are the most knowledgeable about the laws
and regulations involved in hiring employees.
Duration. The training event durations will cover an entire week to ensure all
information is covered and the supervisors can demonstrate the understanding necessary to
execute required changes, leading to a change in behavior. The estimated duration of the entire
program for all supervisors is no more than one year to complete all associated activities prior to
the recurring assessments. With over 100 supervisors, the week-long course will consist of 20-
person classes and a predetermined rotation of students to ensure only a few supervisors from
each department are in the class at any one time to prevent a gap in supervisor coverage.
Delivery Method. Program delivery entails a classroom environment with informational
presentations to begin the training on day one. The presentations will give the background and
purpose of addressing the problem, thus establishing the need for the change and retraining. Day
two will cover changes to the hiring process and policies, in addition to what each change’s
impact will be to the branches. The remaining training time will consist of covering methods of
hiring, retention, barrier identification, and effective diversity management with learning
activities and quizzes throughout to solidify information retention.
Components of learning. Based on the Kirkpatrick (2016) New World Model, there are
five components involved in Level 2 learning: knowledge, skills, attitude, confidence, and
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 127
commitment. Table 14 lists the evaluation methods and timing used for incorporating the
learning components essential for goal attainment.
Table 14
Level 2 Components of Learning for the Training
Method(s) Timing
Declarative Knowledge “I know it.”
Multiple-choice quiz After each module during training
Test Completion of each day
Procedural Skills “I can do it right now.”
Have the participants describe how the hiring
processes access women engineers
End of training
Attitude “I believe this is worthwhile.”
Discussion of why it is important to increase
the representation of women in engineering.
Share stories from women that experienced
hostility, bias, gender schema, and other
challenges in the workplace.
Beginning, halfway through, and at the
conclusion of training.
Confidence “I think I can do it on the job.”
Discussion during demonstration of hiring
process and diversity management with
feedback provided.
During training and final day of the training.
Commitment “I will do it on the job.”
Supervisors will sign a letter of commitment
stating they will actively manage diversity
within their branch.
End of training
Level 1: Reaction
Learner reactions from the training are important to assess training effectiveness at
promoting engagement and relevance to the learner’s job. Kirkpatrick (2016) suggests taking
strategic pauses during the training, called Pulse Checks, to assess learner feelings about the
training. These reactions are useful to adjust training to cover topics in more detail or make an
effort to increase engagement by making the information more meaningful to the learners. Table
15 lists the methods and timing used to assess supervisor reactions to the training. With the
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 128
weeklong approach to the training, changes can be made from one day to the next based on the
feedback received.
Table 15
Components to Measure Reactions
Method(s) or Tool(s) Timing
Engagement
Observation of participants During the training
Survey questions to assess engagement End of the day
Training evaluation form One week after training
Relevance
Survey questions to assess relevance Lunch break and end of day
Training Evaluation Form One week after training
Customer Satisfaction
Survey questions to assess satisfaction End of the day
Training Evaluation Form One week after training
Evaluation Tools
An anonymous survey will be sent to attendees one week after the training concludes to
evaluate Levels 1 and 2 of the training outcomes. The survey will utilize a 5-point Likert-scale
with responses ranging from a high of strongly agree to a low end of strongly disagree. At the
end of the survey are a few open-ended questions to allow for specific feedback and
recommendations for improving the training. These results can also be used to determine further
training needs to address areas that may not have been adequately covered during the initial
training. Examples of the survey templates are included as Appendices E and F.
Throughout and immediately following the training. During the training events,
Level 2 outcomes will be assessed to reveal attitude and levels of knowledge retention using
surveys during strategic pauses throughout the day. Additionally, Level 1 reactions will be
assessed to primarily reveal levels of engagement and perceptions of relevance of the training.
Within the week following the training, participants will be asked to fill out a Training
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 129
Evaluation Form that will further assess Level 1 and 2 outcomes related to engagement,
relevance, and satisfaction in addition to the confidence and commitment levels pertaining to
Level 2 outcome measurement.
Assessment delayed for a period after training. Six months after the conclusion of
training, executive leadership within the organization will initially administer a survey to
measure the participant’s perceptions, satisfaction, and perceived relevance of the training to
their jobs (Level 1). Looking beyond mere participant reaction to the training, the survey will
also assess each participant’s level of self-efficacy and value of applying what they learned
(Level 2) and application of the learned processes to their own hiring and management of
engineers within their branch (Level 3). Additionally, the impact of the new process on the way
they hire engineers, also at Level 3, requires assessment to provide further data and insight into
the behavioral changes.
Given the importance placed on policy compliance and the directive nature of the federal
government workplace, the belief is the Level 3 outcomes will have positive responses, even if
Levels 1 and 2 indicate negative outcomes. Through robust and effective training and education,
parts of the goals are high scores in the first two levels.
Data Analysis and Reporting
The Level 4 goal of the aforementioned implementation plan is to increase the
representation of women in engineering positions within the WISE organization through
improvements to hiring, retention, and any hostility or barriers women face.
Executive leadership. Monthly, each of the four department’s leadership will present a
report showing metrics detailing the number of engineering jobs advertised, the number of
female engineers that applied for each, the number of females hired, and the number of female
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 130
engineers that left the organization for reasons other than retirement. If additional measures are
discovered over time, they will be added to the reports.
Annually, the previous year’s metrics will be calculated and reported to the commanding
officer reflecting progress made toward the supervisor and organizational goals to increase the
representation of women engineers. This report will be shared with the parent organization,
WDC; to compare WISE’s progress in comparison with their sister organizations across the
country and possibly share the process to increase the representation of women engineers at the
other locations.
Organization-wide. Quarterly, an HR employee (or other applicable individual) will
present the organization’s progress at the “Accomplishment Forum,” where the WISE
organization presents and discusses innovations and accomplishments in various fields.
Global goal achievement. Upon reaching the “Global Goal” identified in Table “X”,
WISE’s executive leadership will fund and provide a catered lunch upon achievement of the goal
to increase women engineer’s representation to 25% of the engineering workforce in the
organization. Doing so will communicate to the organization the importance of reaching this
important goal in moving toward gender equity in engineering careers.
Limitations and Delimitations
Similar to other studies involving the social sciences, various limitations may have
affected the outcome of this project and the resulting recommendations for future research.
Limitations in this instance are defined as weaknesses in the project for which I could not
control. The first of these limitations were that responses to the survey and interview questions
might not be truthful or complete. To address this concern, pilot surveys and interviews helped
reduce unclear questions that participants may not understand and therefore cannot answer.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 131
Additionally, time was a constraint for this project since the time allowed for conducting the
project was compressed to three months and the size of the interview group was limited to eight
participants.
The first delimitation of the project was restricting the research to barriers for women
engineers after the Bachelor’s engineering degree completion. I chose to focus on post-
education barriers currently existing within organizational settings that interfere with engineering
career obtainment for women and higher turnover rates compared to their male counterparts.
Additionally, the project restricted participation to supervisors working in the subject
organization, WISE. This allowed focus on specific solutions WISE can implement to address
the underrepresentation of women engineers existing within their own organization and other
similarly structured federal government organizations in the state of California and across the
nation. However, with some adjustments, the findings of this project may prove applicable to
other organizations, both private and public, for addressing barriers to hiring and retaining
women engineers within each respective sector.
Conclusion
Using the New World Kirkpatrick Model (Kirkpatrick, 2016) as the framework for the
planning, implementation, and evaluation of the recommendations for the organization allowed
for a comprehensive approach to the information and training portion of the solution. This
innovative model facilitated attending of the largest piece of this study involving the re-
education and re-training of the supervisors, who are the group tasked with hiring to fill vacant
positions. Additionally, some of the organizational barriers preventing hiring additional women
can be removed through effectively carrying out the identified training. Examples of these
barriers are cognitive biases, gender schema, unutilized or unestablished diversity management
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 132
process, and instances of unaddressed hostility in the workplace. Although the training does not
address all areas of the change initiative, it does play a critical role and requires its effectiveness
to realize the change sustain it over time.
Given the recommendation’s origins within the empirical literature, the assumption is the
validated influences discovered by this project exist within the entire organization.
Determination of success will be measured through realization of the goal, an increase for
women in engineering in the individual branches and, as a consequence, across the organization.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 133
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APPENDIX A
Survey Items
NOTE: This survey is completely anonymous. Answers are not traceable back to the individual
taking the survey, including by the survey administrator. The single individual able to access
responses only receives an aggregated total of each response with no identifying information
other than what is provided by the respondents.
1) Please indicate your sex.
a) Female
b) Male
c) Prefer not to answer
2) Please indicate your race (Indicate all that apply).
a) African-American
b) European-American (non-Hispanic white)
c) Hispanic-American
d) Asian-American (includes Filipino)
e) Pacific-Islander
f) Other
3) Please indicate your age.
4) What is your highest level of education completed?
a) High school graduate
b) Some college
c) 2-year degree
d) 4-year degree
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 142
e) Master's degree
f) Doctorate
5) How many years have you worked for the Federal Government?
6) How many years’ experience do you have as a branch supervisor?
7) Do you currently supervise a branch with engineers?
a) Yes
b) No
8) How many engineers have you hired while employed as a supervisor?
a) 0-4
b) 5-8
c) 9-15
d) Over 15
9) Have you ever supervised a female engineer within your branch?
a) Yes
b) No
10) If yes, how many have left your branch during your time as a supervisor? (O)
11) Of those that left, how many resigned altogether from the organization? (O)
12) In my opinion, female engineers are not taken seriously in this organization. (O)
a) Strongly agree
b) Somewhat agree
c) Neither agree nor disagree
d) Somewhat disagree
e) Strongly disagree
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 143
13) The organizational culture can sometimes be hostile towards women engineers. (K, O)
a) Strongly agree
b) Somewhat agree
c) Neither agree nor disagree
d) Somewhat disagree
e) Strongly disagree
14) How much importance do you feel your organization places on increasing the representation
of women in engineering positions? (M)
a) Not at all important
b) Slightly important
c) Unsure
d) Very important
e) Extremely important
15) Supervisors have a responsibility to counter the hostile culture toward women in their
branch. (K)
a) Strongly agree
b) Somewhat agree
c) Neither agree nor disagree
d) Somewhat disagree
e) Strongly disagree
16) The organization does not recognize branches/divisions that do a better job of hiring women
engineers than others. (O)
a) Strongly agree
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 144
b) Somewhat agree
c) Neither agree nor disagree
d) Somewhat disagree
e) Strongly disagree
17) I feel confident in my ability to locate and recruit engineers within my branch. (M)
a) Strongly agree
b) Somewhat agree
c) Neither agree nor disagree
d) Somewhat disagree
e) Strongly disagree
18) I feel confident in my ability to locate and recruit WOMEN engineers within my branch.
(M)
a) Strongly agree
b) Somewhat agree
c) Neither agree nor disagree
d) Somewhat disagree
e) Strongly disagree
19) I feel confident in my ability to retain women engineers within my branch. (M)
a) Strongly agree
b) Somewhat agree
c) Neither agree nor disagree
d) Somewhat disagree
e) Strongly disagree
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 145
20) This organization has trouble retaining women in engineering positions. (O)
a) Strongly agree
b) Somewhat agree
c) Neither agree nor disagree
d) Somewhat disagree
e) Strongly disagree
21) Do you currently have a diversity management process within your branch? (O)
a) Yes
b) No
c) Unsure
22) If yes, does it address female personnel? (O)
a) Yes
b) No
c) Unsure
23) I feel I am able to adequately locate women engineer candidates based on the current hiring
processes. (O)
a) Strongly agree
b) Somewhat agree
c) Neither agree nor disagree
d) Somewhat disagree
e) Strongly disagree
24) The current hiring process enables access to and hiring of women for open engineering
positions. (O)
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 146
a) Strongly agree
b) Somewhat agree
c) Neither agree nor disagree
d) Somewhat disagree
e) Strongly disagree
25) How often do women appear on the final list of interview candidates for engineering
positions? (O)
a) Never
b) Sometimes
c) About half the time
d) Most of the time
e) Always
26) List all venues/websites/organizations that engineering job openings are advertised in. (O)
27) List all venues/websites/organizations that engineering job openings are advertised in
specifically for WOMEN. (O)
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 147
APPENDIX B
Interview Protocol - Supervisors
1. If you had to guess, what percentage of engineers do you think are women in our
organization? The most recent data show it is 15%, how do you feel about that? (M)
a) Do you think this disparity is awkward for the women who are engineers here?
2. Describe your knowledge of the process for hiring engineers within your branch. (K)
a) Where are job vacancies posted?
b) How many candidates do you typically interview for engineering positions?
c) How many women do you typically see on the candidate list you receive?
d) If asked to increase the number of female engineers, describe how you would.
3. Describe some challenges you feel female engineers do/might present within your branch, if
any. (M)
a) What benefits do you feel they would provide to your branch?
b) Do you feel differences exist between men and women in engineering?
4. In what ways do you manage diversity within your branch? (K)
5. Do you feel women engineers require different management styles than male engineers?
Please explain. (O)
6. As a supervisor, have you ever had women appear on the list of qualified engineering
candidates for a position you advertised? (O)
a) If yes, estimate how often you hired them. If no, what were some reasons?
b) For the ones you did hire, are they still in your branch? If not, what were some reasons
given for leaving?
7. Do you feel women engineers want to work in this organization? Why or why not? (O)
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 148
8. Describe your views on women in engineering as compared to men. (e.g. ability, cooperation,
workplace environment, etc.…) (M)
9. In what ways do you feel this organization does/does not place value on the contribution of
women engineers? (M)
10. What are some ideas you have regarding how this organization can increase the number of
female engineers? (Idea generation)
11. In your experience inside or outside of this organization, how do you feel female engineers
are treated by their male counterparts? (O)
12. Describe any evidence you have seen to support your feelings of whether or not you think
this organization places importance on hiring female engineers. (M)
13. Describe any feelings you have about this organization increasing the representation of
women engineers specific to the pros and/or cons you think there may be. (M)
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 149
APPENDIX C
Informed Consent/Information Sheet
INFORMATION/FACTS SHEET FOR EXEMPT NON-MEDICAL RESEARCH
Exploring Knowledge, Motivation, and Organizational Influencers That Contribute to the
Underrepresentation of Women in the Engineering Element of STEM Occupations at a
Federal Agency
You are invited to participate in a research project. Research studies include only people who
voluntarily choose to take part. This document explains information about this project. You
should ask questions about anything that is unclear to you.
PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT
This research project aims to gain understanding into what barriers are preventing female
engineers from obtaining employment at a federal agency. Additionally, the project aims
to gain insight into female engineer retention issues and methods for improvement. The
knowledge gained from the research will be used to increase female engineer
representation within the organization being studied and potentially other organizations
within the federal government.
PARTICIPANT INVOLVEMENT
If you agree to participate, you will be asked to complete an online survey, which is
anticipated to take 5-10 minutes, and a 30-60 minute audio-recorded interview, if you are
one of the survey respondents selected for the follow-up interview. You do not have to
answer any questions you do not want to, click “next” or “N/A” in the survey to move to
the next question or ask to pass on an interview question. If you do not want to be audio-
recorded, handwritten notes will be taken.
ALTERNATIVES TO PARTICIPATION
Your alternative is to not participate. Your relationship with your employer will not be
affected whether you participate in this project or not.
CONFIDENTIALITY
Your name or other identifiable information will not be collected and responses will be
coded with a false name (pseudonym) and maintained separately. If any identifiable
information is obtained in connection with this project, it will remain confidential. The
audio-recordings will be deleted once they have been transcribed. The data will be stored
on a password-protected computer in the researcher’s office for up to one year after the
project has been completed and then deleted. As a participant, you have the right to review
the audio-recordings and/or transcripts. No person other than the researcher will have
access to listen to the audio recordings, thus ensuring no traceability from the voice of the
participant.
Required language:
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 150
The members of the research team and the University of Southern California’s Human Subjects
Protection Program (HSPP) may access the data. The HSPP reviews and monitors research
studies to protect the rights and welfare of research subjects.
If the results of the research are published or discussed in conferences, no identifiable
information will be used.
INVESTIGATOR CONTACT INFORMATION
Principal Investigator David Holl via email at DHoll@usc.edu or phone at (805) 276-0544
IRB CONTACT INFORMATION
University Park Institutional Review Board (UPIRB), 3720 South Flower Street #301, Los
Angeles, CA 90089-0702, (213) 821-5272 or upirb@usc.edu
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 151
APPENDIX D
Recruitment Letter
Hello!
I am a Doctoral student in the Organizational Change and Leadership program at the
University of Southern California. I invite you to participate in the gathering of data pertaining
to your experience and knowledge of the hiring and retention of female engineers within your
organization. Your participation consists of completing an online survey and participation in a
one-on-one interview if you are one of the six to eight participants chosen. The purpose of this
research is to understand the causes of and solutions to the gender employment disparity between
male and female engineers within the organization. You are eligible to participate in this project
if you are or ever were a supervisor of a branch with engineers at the subject organization.
Participation is strictly voluntary, with the alternative being not participating and with no
penalty for choosing not to. If you do decide to participate, you will be provided with an
information sheet about the project, a link for completing the online survey, and possible
participation in a one-on-one interview, if chosen to do so. Time estimated for the survey is 5-10
minutes, with no more than 60 minutes for the in-person interview.
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 152
APPENDIX E
Supervisor Survey #1
This survey is to assess the effectiveness of the recent “New Hiring Process for
Supervisors” training course you recently attended. This survey is specifically looking to learn
what factors assisted and hindered your learning and general feelings you have about the training
you completed. Responses to the questions are critical to improve any deficient areas and/or
provide additional information that may have been omitted inadvertently.
Survey Items
Level 1: Engagement
1. The course increased my understanding of the new hiring process
a) Strongly agree b) Agree c) Neither agree nor disagree d) Disagree e) Strongly disagree
2. The course increased my understanding about hiring women engineers
a) Strongly agree b) Agree c) Neither agree nor disagree d) Disagree e) Strongly disagree
Level 1: Relevance
3. I have been able to apply what I learned in the course to my job
a) Strongly agree b) Agree c) Neither agree nor disagree d) Disagree e) Strongly disagree
4. The information provided in the course was relevant to my job
a) Strongly agree b) Agree c) Neither agree nor disagree d) Disagree e) Strongly disagree
Level 1: Customer Satisfaction
5. The course was a good use of my time
a) Strongly agree b) Agree c) Neither agree nor disagree d) Disagree e) Strongly disagree
Level 2: Learning
6. The course increased my knowledge about types of cognitive bias and gender schema directed
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 153
toward women in the workplace.
a) Strongly agree b) Agree c) Neither agree nor disagree d) Disagree e) Strongly disagree
7. The course increased my knowledge about the benefits of having more women engineers
a) Strongly agree b) Agree c) Neither agree nor disagree d) Disagree e) Strongly disagree
8. The training helped me understand how to retain women engineers within my branch
a) Strongly agree b) Agree c) Neither agree nor disagree d) Disagree e) Strongly disagree
9. The training helped me understand the benefits of having women engineers
a) Strongly agree b) Agree c) Neither agree nor disagree d) Disagree e) Strongly disagree
10. The training helped me understand how important female mentors are to women engineers
a) Strongly agree b) Agree c) Neither agree nor disagree d) Disagree e) Strongly disagree
11. The training helped me understand the importance of reflecting about my role in ensuring
women are represented as engineers in my branch
a) Strongly agree b) Agree c) Neither agree nor disagree d) Disagree e) Strongly disagree
12. After the training, I feel more confident in my ability to increase the number of female
engineers in my branch
a) Strongly agree b) Agree c) Neither agree nor disagree d) Disagree e) Strongly disagree
13. After the training, I feel more confident about my ability to identify hostility toward women
a) Strongly agree b) Agree c) Neither agree nor disagree d) Disagree e) Strongly disagree
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 154
APPENDIX F
Supervisor Survey #2
This survey is the second and final regarding the “New Hiring Process for Supervisors”
training course you attended. Now that some time has passed since you attended the training, we
would like to assess your satisfaction with the training and its applicability and usefulness to
your hiring accomplishments. We are also interested in how confident you feel about hiring
women for engineering positions and your ability to mitigate any workplace difficulties women
may face as engineers. Finally, we would like to know the extent that the training has assisted
you with hiring and retaining women engineers in your branch. Your responses to these items
will provide critical information towards achieving that goal.
Survey Items
Level 1: Reactions
1. I enjoyed the “New Hiring Process for Supervisors” training
a) Strongly agree b) Agree c) Neither agree nor disagree d) Disagree e) Strongly disagree
2. I found the “New Hiring Process for Supervisors” training class to be useful
a) Strongly agree b) Agree c) Neither agree nor disagree d) Disagree e) Strongly disagree
Level 2: Learning
3. My learning about hiring and retaining women engineers was enhanced by attending the
training
a) Strongly agree b) Agree c) Neither agree nor disagree d) Disagree e) Strongly disagree
4. My learning about opioid prescribing was enhanced by attending the training
a) Strongly agree b) Agree c) Neither agree nor disagree d) Disagree e) Strongly disagree
Level 3: Behavior
UNDERREPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING 155
5. I have increased the number of women engineers in my branch since attending the training
a) Strongly agree b) Agree c) Neither agree nor disagree d) Disagree e) Strongly disagree
6. I am able to identify any hostility toward women engineers since attending the training
a) Strongly agree b) Agree c) Neither agree nor disagree d) Disagree e) Strongly disagree
7. I have integrated the sex diversity management techniques I learned in the training
a) Strongly agree b) Agree c) Neither agree nor disagree d) Disagree e) Strongly disagree
8. I feel more confident in my ability to hire and retain women engineers since the training
a) Strongly agree b) Agree c) Neither agree nor disagree d) Disagree e) Strongly disagree
Open Ended Response:
9. Please, identify ways to improve the training:
Abstract (if available)
Abstract
Within Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) careers fields, the representation of women remains at an inequitable level when compared to men and to women’s representation in other professions. Given the current state of women representing 52% of the professional and management-related workforce (U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, 2015), their representation at only 15% of employed engineers nationwide appears to be a problem. When considering the fact that recent graduation data show women earn over 19% of Bachelor’s degrees in engineering each year, the low number becomes increasingly puzzling. What factors are contributing to this low number of women in engineering professions? One of the contributing factors is clearly women’s choice of education and career paths. However, empirical literature suggests, after pursuing and entering the engineer profession, women often are victim to gender schema, cognitive bias, and an absence of family-friendly work policies, an insufficient number of female mentors, social exclusion, and other drivers potentially leading to their higher turnover rate compared to their male counterparts. This project looks within one military-related organization to uncover reasons for the low representation of female engineers. The combination of a mixed-methods approach to data collection and the Knowledge, Motivation, and Organization (KMO) framework developed by Clark and Estes (2008) for analysis is employed by this project. Comparison of the analysis results to widely accepted learning and motivation principles presented in the reviewed literature led to a proposal of research-based solutions to address the representation gap and ultimately increase women’s representation in engineering and other STEM career fields.
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Asset Metadata
Creator
Holl, David Earl
(author)
Core Title
The underrepresentation of women in the engineering element of STEM occupations and influencers contributing to the persistent gap
School
Rossier School of Education
Degree
Doctor of Education
Degree Program
Organizational Change and Leadership (On Line)
Publication Date
09/12/2017
Defense Date
07/28/2017
Publisher
University of Southern California
(original),
University of Southern California. Libraries
(digital)
Tag
bias,diversity,Engineering,gender,OAI-PMH Harvest,STEM,Women
Language
English
Contributor
Electronically uploaded by the author
(provenance)
Advisor
Hirabayashi, Kimberly (
committee chair
), Kim, Esther (
committee member
), Sundt, Melora (
committee member
)
Creator Email
dholl@usc.edu,dholl1717@gmail.com
Permanent Link (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c40-428237
Unique identifier
UC11264157
Identifier
etd-HollDavidE-5719.pdf (filename),usctheses-c40-428237 (legacy record id)
Legacy Identifier
etd-HollDavidE-5719.pdf
Dmrecord
428237
Document Type
Dissertation
Rights
Holl, David Earl
Type
texts
Source
University of Southern California
(contributing entity),
University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses
(collection)
Access Conditions
The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...
Repository Name
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Repository Location
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Tags
bias
gender
STEM