Women Engineers in Tertiary Education in Australia: the Structural and Cultural Barriers They Face

There are two main parts to this paper. One, which is purely statistical, documents the number of female students and academics in engineering in Australia in recent years. This shows that the females are a small but growing minority. The second is a discussion of how this imbalance between males and females may affect cultural aspects within engineering education. Because the numbers of women are so few and there are no engineering departments or disciplines where women form anything but a small minority there is no objective way of knowing what a 'feminised' engineering might be like. This discussion is therefore based principally on my own opinions developed over 25 years spent in a combination of work and study in five different universities: two in Scotland and three in Australia. Where possible I have supported my opinions with the experiences of some other women engineering academics and from indirect information about other disciplines.