Abstract:

According to Lhotska L. (2018), in last years, there has been a European effort to increase the number of women in technology and engineering courses at universities, and consequently the women’s participation in these labor market.

This effort is reflected in the “Strategic engagement for gender equality 2016-2019” of the European Union (2016), in the key action “promoting gender equality in all levels and types of education, including in relation to gendered study subject choices and careers” as a way to reduce the gender pay, earnings and pension gaps, to fight poverty among women.

In the Portuguese context, a pilot-project entitled "Engenheiras por um dia" (Women engineers for a day) was developed under the “Agenda for equality in the labor market and in enterprises”, framed in the “National strategy for equality and non-discrimination 2018-2030”. This project aims to combat and prevent the intensification of segregation of professional occupations, focusing in particular on the absence of girls in the areas of engineering and technologies.

In fact, despite the positive evolution of the professional areas associated with engineering and technology, and the evident success of women in physics and mathematics (with good grades), the rate of feminization in engineering and technology courses is very low in Portugal, especially in mechanical, electrical and computing engineering. In view of this fact, attracting more women to technology and engineering fields has become an important issue as their views and ideas create more opportunities for achieving better research and innovation (Kerkhoven A. H. et al., 2016).

The University of Beira Interior (UBI) it has recently become a partner of this project, having participated in the two editions of the initiative "Women engineers for a day" through the promotion of engineering programs and the share of experiences of female engineering students and women engineers with students of secondary schools.

An inside perspective, supported in the institutional “Report on gender equality” of 2017, shows a female-male student ratio of 52% - 48% in UBI. This almost equality in student gender dramatically changes when only engineering students are considered, presenting a female-male student ratio of 31% - 69%. This imbalance is even more pronounced when the analysis focuses on certain engineering courses as Electrical Engineering (14% - 86%), Electromechanical Engineering (11% - 89%) or Civil Engineering (33% - 67%).

This paper aims to report some of the strategies adopted by the departments of Civil Engineering and Electromechanical Engineering of the UBI Faculty of Engineering in the promotion of engineering programs in secondary schools, as well as some approaches carried out in university classrooms to guarantee gender neutrality and gender balance.

The experience of the two departments shows that secondary school students are unfamiliar with most aspects of the engineering profession and the role of women in this field of knowledge. The direct contact with women's success stories in engineering, sharing sessions of real-world experiences of female engineers and special practical activities have been shown to be efficient approaches. Still, most of the university classroom materials (image, language, real world examples, etc.) do not promote gender equality in the engineering education.

Keywords:

Gender Equality, Education, Engineering.