SUMMARY

Female enrolments of under 20% are typical of many undergraduate programmes in Canadian engineering schools. This limit has been attributed to a gender barrier. The subject choices of over 13000 children in enrichment mini-university courses and summer camps are examined. The participation rate of girls in technological subjects such as engineering, shows the gender barrier becomes a significant factor as early as age nine.

INTRODUCTION

There is general agreement that efforts should be made to attract more women into engineering[1]. Unfortunately, female enrolments of only 10 to 20% are typical of Canadian engineering schools although in some programmes the numbers are higher. The 10 to 20% limit has been attributed to a gender barrier. Certainly, an examination of children's perceptions of their future found that gender was the most significant variable in determining their responses[2].

The objective of this research was to identify the age at which the gender barrier seriously affects young women.

METHOD

The principal source of data was the Enrichment Mini-Courses Programme for bright and highly-motivated students from ages 13 to 18[3]. During the 1982 to 1990 period, 163 mini-courses involving 6250 students were offered at Carleton University. The gender and age of the students in each course were obtained. The courses were categorized into 4 content areas: arts, social sciences, science and engineering. The engineering category included technologically-based disciplines such as architecture, industrial design and computer programming. In all cases the participants had a free choice of subject area.
Additional data for 6967 children between 9 and 15 years of age were obtained from 4 university sites, each in a different province. Carleton University, University of Calgary, University of Manitoba and Simon Fraser University run children's summer camps which combine athletic and academic modules. Data were obtained for the period covering 1987 to 1990. Some sites provided data for only a portion of this period. Gender and age, where available, were obtained for each of the sites. The children chose academic modules with 4 or 5 components. The engineering content ranged from 0 to 50%.

SPSS^X[4], was used to analyse the age, course content and gender data for the mini-courses and children's camps.

RESULTS

In the mini-courses, a chi-squared test showed a significant effect of content area on gender ratio. The ratios of enrolment differed across content areas with engineering having the lowest female enrolment. The overall percentage of female students enrolled in all mini-courses was 50.5%. Arts had a female enrolment of 62.9% and social sciences had a female enrolment of $60.2%. Science and engineering had significantly lower female enrolments of 38.5% and 20.2% respectively. Although this study is directed at engineering, the low female enrolment in science should also be a concern. Figure 1 shows the gender ratio by content area for age 13. The same pattern was found at every age level examined.

Fig. 1 Gender ratio for mini-course enrolment for age 13, sample size: 2087.

Surprisingly, age had no significant effect on gender ratio in any of the content areas. This is of particular importance in engineering where female enrolment was as low as 24.3% at age 13. Figure 2 shows the gender ratios for engineering. Although there is a slight downward trend with increasing age, there is no significant change. The gender barrier, in terms of the enrichment mini-courses, is in existence by age 13.

The data from the children's camps were less easily analysed due to their diverse nature. For example, ages were available only from Carleton and Manitoba. There was a marked variability among the sites and the low student numbers in some modules made interpretation more difficult. It should also be noted that the students' selection of courses was more limited than in the mini-courses. Parental guidance, which can contribute to a gender barrier, may play a larger role in the students' choices, especially for the younger children.

Fig. 2 Gender ratio for mini-courses enrolment in engineering, sample size: 1031.

A chi-squared test on the overall gender ratio showed a significant site effect. Over the entire age range of 9 to 15 the relationship between engineering content and gender ratio, as shown in Figure 3, was significant at Carleton University, University of Manitoba and University of Calgary but, for unknown reasons, not at Simon Fraser University. Carleton and Calgary show a monotonic decline with increasing engineering content. At Manitoba, where the sample size is larger, the decline occurred for engineering contents between 20 and 40%.

Fig. 3 Female enrolment at children's camps, sample size: 6967.

Although the low number of students, only 387, may make the data inconclusive, Carleton's camps show a significant engineering content effect at ages 11 and 12. The larger sample size at University of Manitoba made it possible to examine the age effect at that site. The effect of engineering content was significant at every age level. In Figure 5 the percentage female enrolment for an engineering content of 40% is shown. Although there is a slight increase at ages 13 and 14, female enrolment is as low as 30% as early as age 9.

Fig. 4 Gender ratio for University of Manitoba children's camp for 40% engineering content, sample size: 758

CONTRIBUTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

This research shows that the gender barrier becomes a significant factor in the lives of girls as early as age 9 and is firmly in place by age 13. Efforts to address low enrolment of women in subjects such as engineering often target women between the ages of 16 and 18; e.g.,[5]. The authors feel that programmes aimed at these women may add to the numbers in engineering at the expense of the science subjects, which also suffer from low female enroloment. Clearly, to increase the number of women in technologically-based programmes, society must remove a gender barrier that affects girls in their early school years. It is the authors' opinion that programmes to alleviate this gender barrier should be geared to the needs of children younger than age nine.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The financial support of Carleton University (GR-5) and the assistance of the Carleton University, University of Calgary, University of Manitoba and Simon Fraser University are gratefully acknowledged.

REFERENCES

[1] F. Tavenas, NSERC Seminar on Canada's Future Requirements for Highly Qualified Scientists and Engineers, contribution to the discussion, Ottawa, May 3, 1990.

[2] When I Grow Up ... Career Expectations and Aspirations of Canadian Children, Women's Bureau of Labour Canada, Ottawa, 1986.

[3] The Enrichment Mini-Course Programme - A Success Story, Service for Continuing Education, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, April 1990.

[4] SPSS^X Statistical Package for Social Sciences, 3.1, SPSS Inc., Chicago, 1989.

[5] Science and Engineering: Where are the Women, Briefing Notes, Council of Ontario Universities, 38, February, 1989.