Women engineer
’WOMEN IN ENGINEERING IS THE NEW NORMAL’
Background
Women are significantly underrepresented in STEM majors. This is an urgent issue, especially those gender gaps that are most apparent in some of the highest-paid and fastest-growing jobs in both the business world and academia. The solution to the problem must be dealt with in an integrated way so that more and more women could reach their peak in society, business and science. In accordance with social expectations, the aim of the University of Pécs is to boost the number of female students in STEM fields. Therefore, the two relevant faculties (the Faculty of Sciences and the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology) are planning to implement an overall programme package, which takes into consideration specifics of age and gender to increase the number of female students.
Goals of the marketing programme: increasing the number of female students in STEM majors and supporting the female students in our ongoing programmes.
Working method: partnership between marketing and engineering professionals within the University, between the Universities concerned and between the Universities and a professional marketing agency.
Key to a successful strategy: showing that it should be evident for a woman to become an engineer and being a female specialist in engineering goes without saying.
Main message: ’Women in engineering is the new normal’
Results of the marketing programme:
- launching a programme focusing on being a female engineer and career guidance for engineering
- enhancing the visibility profile of the faculty at a national level as well as showing the professional results
- mobilising and linking the faculty students to the initiative
- creating a tool-kit that can be used in the long run (concerning enrolment and publicity)
Tools:
Mentoring programme
Scholarship – launching the Ambassadors scholarship programme for students (preparing students for their professions and representing the faculty) Research – focus group (primary research: focus group interviews): revealing insights for the PR campaigns, identifying problems and their sources, determining stereotypes and breakthrough possibilities. Breakthrough PR – marketing campaign: presenting and processing exemplary female engineer careers - cooperation with national media, making short films: Be present in the fields of Engineering: https://youtu.be/sVBAGI0ppy4 Constant communication presence: women in engineering – blog (www.mernoknok.hu) – involving student ambassadors and presenting the results of educational projects. ’To be a female engineer – to become a female engineer’ poster – photo – video competition (www.mernoknok.hu)
The concept of the programme was developed and coordinated by:
Dr Éva Szabó, associate professor, chartered architect
Dr Bernadett Mészáros, assistant professor, chartered economist
Consultant: Professor Dr Mária Törőcsik, chartered economist
It happened 100 years ago that the first female engineer got her diploma, since then women take also leading position on this field. Though we can meet more and more female engineers, women are still not emphatically presented of the technical fields. The differences show up by specializations. Until among the interior designers and architects there are more women (sometimes even more than men), on the side of marked engineer fields like mechanic engineering, electric engineering, structural engineering and computer science engineering the extent of the female experts is still small. In accordance with the social expectations the University of Pécs set the raising of female students on the majors of mathematics, natural science, informatics and engineering as a goal. That is why the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology achieves a complex program in order to raise the number and rate of female students. The marketing program that has been ended by the beginning of this year has produced concrete, realizable results. At the same time, it provides usable device system for the Faculty. On the majors of computer science engineering and engineering the number of female students significantly falls short of the number of male students on PTE: in 2017 the rate of female students was 25%, in 2020 it was 29% on the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology. It is a significant problem and can also be experienced in business life, that on the fields of science the males are more strongly presented on the higher levels of the hierarchical system. This results that less women can reach the higher levels of business and scientific life. The problem needs complex solvation to help women to be able to get through the glass ceiling of the above-mentioned fields. The main messages of the nationwide campaign were „Woman in engineering is the new normal” and “Let’s be presented on the field of technic with us!”. The idea of these themes came from the recognition that for those who are already studying at the university, do not feel discrimination and it is natural for them studying engineering as a woman, but those who are still studying at a secondary school have several breaks and fears in connection with the whole situation if they will be able to start on these studies and if they will be capable to be successful on these fields as a female worker. The social division strengthens these fears. Though the old preconceptions already disappeared, but sometimes the crumbs of them can appear in the most unexpected situations. The survey of the needs, problems and the forms of discrimination, the screening of projects and curriculum and a well-built mentor- and scholarship program were completed with a marketing communicational program. The “customizing” was helped by a professional agency and the lecturers and students of the faculty took part in the program a lot as well. The professional programs were based on a focus group research. The aim of this research was to find the deeper layers and to find the answers for the formulated answers and problems. The agency also paid attention to make the research within the faculty, so they could embed it in everyday life of the institution. The inherent of this type of thinking were several own researches and the scenes were shoot in the labors and on the original locations, the actors and actresses were the students of the faculty. Significant press coverage was elicited by the PR campaign about the female engineers that focused on growing the prestige of women who work on the technical fields (for example the image film produced over 170.000 downloads). Articles appeared in nationally highlighted public press products and also in business and professional press products, focusing on the experiences, advantages and disadvantages of being a female engineer on a field that is mainly dominated by males. Almost 500 fieldwork arrived for the photo-, poster and video project of “Being female engineer, becoming female engineer.” that focused on how exciting and attractive studying and working can be as a female engineer. Foreigner students and male students also sent fieldworks. The ambassador scholarship that contains more than 500 students, supported the enrollment program of the faculty. The participants could take part in the program according to their efficiencies and affinities (photo, video, reports, event organizer tasks). Currently they are creating podcasts, articles in connection with their university life and engineer studies. Thanks to this program a way of thinking and an argument have been started about engineer fields, female roles, impediments, motivations. The blog page of www.mernoknok.hu keeps the name of the original marketing program, but it widened. It focuses and shows pictures about everyday university life and engineer fields. The students of the faculty feel the blog page their own, that is why they upload it with rich content week by week.Female students get knowledge and also a profession as prospective engineers on the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology (PTE) The program that popularized the engineer profession among female students is in the finish.
“The most likable properties of the engineering majors are that they provide creativity, stability, I can be a part of a creative community. Being an engineer is exciting and I can also represent a shortage profession.” – summarized one of the participants of the research that was done among the prospective female engineers of Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology (PTE).
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