Feminine Morality and Major Choice

Julia Thompson

Purdue University

OverviewIntroductionThesisMoral DevelopmentEarly Child experiencesGender, Culture and ChoiceChoosing a majorImpacts

Where Are the Women In Engineering?

Why are women lacking in STEM?

Biological differences between men and women. Girls’ lack of academic preparation for a science major/career. Girls’ poor attitude toward science and lack of positive experiences

with science in childhood. The absence of female scientists/engineers as role models. Science curricula are irrelevant to many girls. The pedagogy of science classes favors male students. A ‘chilly climate’ exists for girls/women in science classes. Cultural pressure on girls/women to conform to traditional gender

roles An inherent masculine worldview in scientific epistemology.Blickenstaff (2005)

Thesis

Women tend to choose majors that align with feminine morality

Kohlberg's stages of moral development

Overall Gendered Morality (Gilligan 1982)

Feminine value patterns: Caring Interpersonal relationships Cooperation

Masculine value patterns: Reason Success Being right/ Competition

Note that historically male values are what characterize stages of Kohlberg Stages of Moral Development

Early Childhood Experiences View of Child-Mother relationship for the first 3 years

(Chodrow 1974) Female- extension of themselves Male – opposite as themselves

Role of Play (Lever 1976) Female

Simple, with an emphasis on personal achievement (i.e. jump rope)

Will make exceptions to rules to accommodate others. Emotions will end the game

Male Complex rules, with an an emphasis on competition (i.e. baseball) Part of the game is debating the rules.

ChoiceHistorically

Women had limited options (career, relationships, etc.)

Culturally In different cultures decisions will be more or less

individualistic

Women in Engineering

Gibbons (2009)

Morality and Major Top 5 Degrees for Women

Environmental (43.7%) Biomedical (36.9%) Chemical (35.0 %) Biological and

Agricultural (32.6%) Industrial/ Manufacturing

(30.2%) Connected to feminine

morality Environmental/ Caring People focused fields

Bottom 5 Degrees for Women Computer Engineering (7.5%) Computer Science -inside

engineering- (10.5%) Computer Science –outside

engineering – (11.1.%) Mechanical (11.4 %) Electrical (11.5%)

Connected to Masculine morality Emphasis on reason Individualistic Competitive Less social emphasis

Conclusion: Engineering Approach Towards Women

HistoricallyMen only

ModernPolicy

Pipeline ModelPatching a leaking

pipelinePrepare women to be

more like menStudent Responses:

LeavingMultiple IdentitiesActivist

Conclusion: New Wave Engineering

A need to bring engineering in line with Feminine MoralityPartly inline with policy and industry goals (NAE 2004)

Shown to have higher interest/retention of women:Sustainability in Engineering (Zimmerman & Vanegas,

2007)Service Learning in Engineering (Barrington & Duffy,

2007)Eco-Feminism in Engineering (Rao, Pawley, &

Hoffmann, 2011)

ReferencesBarrington, L., & Duffy, J. (2007). Attracting Underrepresented Groups to Engineering with Service-

Learning Paper presented at the American Society for Engineering Education, Honolulu, Hi. Blickenstaff, J. C. (2005). Women and science careers: leaky pipeline or gender filter? Gender and

Education, 17(4), 369-386. Chodorow, N. (1974). Family Structure and Feminine Personality. In M. Z. Rosaldo & L. amphere (Eds.),

Women, Culture and Society. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Gibbons, M. T. (2009). Engineering by the Numbers: American Society for Engineering Education.Lever, J. (1976). Sex Differences in the Games Children Play. Social Problems, 23, 478-487. National Academy of Engineering. (2004). The Engineer of 2020 : Visions of Engineering in the New

Century. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.National Science Foundation, N. (2011). Retrieved April 26, 2011 http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/Rao, R., Pawley, A., & Hoffmann, S. (2011). Sustainability and the boundaries of Engineering

Education: Lessons from eco-feminist theory. Paper presented at the Gender & STEM Research Symposium, West Lafayette, IN.

Zimmerman, J. B., & Vanegas, J. (2007). Using Sustainability Education to Enable the Increase of Diversity in Science, Engineering and Technology-Related Discilines. International Journal of Engineering Education, 23(2), 242-253.