Contextualizing the under-representation of women in science and engineering: A graphical analysis of trends in Canadian degree attainment statistics.

摘要

The selective success of women in traditionally male dominated fields is identified as a paradox whose explanation will have implications for the issue of the under representation of women in science and engineering programs. Trends in degree attainment by sex science and engineering are examined in the context of degree attainment in all traditionally male dominated degree programs in order to generate empirically based hypotheses. Because research designs in use for quantitative data in sociology are much better designed to test hypotheses than to generate new ones, an important aspect of this study is its development of a new analytical strategy. In order to effectively explore the available data, the existing statistics for degree attainment in traditionally male dominated fields for both sexes over the 1962-1989 period are converted to graphical display and analysed visually. The organization of the graphical displays developed is consistent with basic aspects of the comparative, exploratory research strategy advocated by Glaser and Strauss and graphical display techniques of Tufte. Findings show that the largest gains in representation in traditionally male dominated disciplines have been in those where the associated professions or occupations are typically autonomous self-employed professions rather than positions in large organizations. These findings further suggest processes that may be contributing the continued under representation of women in the physical sciences and engineering.