DIGITAL LIBRARY
GENDER DIFFERENCES IN ENGINEERING. THE TRANSITION FROM HIGHER EDUCATION TO EMPLOYMENT IN CATALONIA (SPAIN)
Universitat de Barcelona (SPAIN)
About this paper:
Appears in: ICERI2016 Proceedings
Publication year: 2016
Pages: 6554-6558
ISBN: 978-84-617-5895-1
ISSN: 2340-1095
doi: 10.21125/iceri.2016.0498
Conference name: 9th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation
Dates: 14-16 November, 2016
Location: Seville, Spain
Abstract:
In recent decades, women have increased their participation in higher education, exceeding male participation in many European countries. Nevertheless, female participation in professional activities is still lower than male participation. The objective of this paper is to analyse possible gender differences in the transition process from university to the labour market in engineering. The analysis is based on data from the 2014 Employment Graduate Survey of the Catalan University Quality Assurance Agency (AQU). We use descriptive and bivariate techniques that summarize differences by gender. The results show that men are over-represented in engineering, that is, engineering should be considered as a male-dominated field of study. In addition, inequalities have been observed in recruitment, salary, job category and speed of entering the first job. These aspects determine the subsequent stratification of the labour market. Thus, women who attend male-dominated degrees suffer gender inequalities. According to these results, we can conclude that higher education does not resolve gender differences.
Keywords:
Gender, engineering, higher education, labor market.