ANALYSIS OF WOMEN'S MOTIVATIONS IN ENGINEERING

There are currently few women interested in studying STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) degrees. The research group’s objective was to investigate why this is so.

The starting point of the methodology of this study was academic research and other authors’ related analyses, highlighting the studies conducted by experts in this subject. The research of news-related and numerical analyses about the evolution of this phenomena especially focuses on the evaluation of the supposed gender inequality between STEM degrees and other degrees. Based on these studies, the aim was to answer three different questions related to investigating the evolution of students in our university.

What stereotypes exert an influence during the university selection process?
What motivates students to select a degree?
Is there no gender equality between STEM degrees and the rest of degrees?

A qualitative method was used, and eight students (from 18 to 25 years old) who are studying STEM and eight students who are not studying STEM were interviewed. To confront it another questionnaire with two experts’ interviews was administered to blend all the results to triangulate the research.

The results are surprising, and our satisfaction is to see changes in this way. As a conclusion more important are stereotypes, cultural tradition, students’ experiences have influence and motivate to select which kind of study.