• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.7
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• pp.2676-2682
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• 2024

Despite its remarkable socioeconomic development, South Korea underperforms in terms of female labor force participation and women in leadership positions. As women appear to avoid nuclear engineering, we aim to evaluate its relative performance in attracting women to its labor force compared to other college majors. Using college-major level information from 2000, we test whether the female faculty share in nuclear engineering is lower than its counterparts. Although nuclear engineering has one of the lowest female faculty shares, its share exceeds that of agricultural science, business and economics, chemical engineering, chemistry, civil engineering, and industrial engineering once we properly control for gender composition among students and other compounding factors. In other words, once female students major in nuclear engineering, they are less likely to leave their fields compared to their counterparts in other disciplines. This result implies that if the nuclear engineering field aims to attract more women to its workforce, it is important to target them from the early stage of their careers.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.441-448
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• 2013

In recent years, the number of female workers pursuing careers in the construction engineering and management field has increased, despite the fact that the job positions have been traditionally considered as retaining job functions and/or qualities that are more appropriate to male than female. This may be attributed to the fact that the positions also require delicate and/or detail-oriented job functions, which can be successfully performed by female. It is important for project participants to understand the working conditions for female field managers by analyzing their job performance. This study collects expert opinions regarding female's managerial performance on job site. Survey questionnaires were administered to two focus groups, male and female field managers who work for general contractors. This study contributes to encouraging female's social and economic involvement by investigating the challenges they face in the workplace, and provides measures to respond to such challenges.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.3-15
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to examine the satisfaction and needs of female students in Engineering with counseling male professor. Subjects of this study were 92 female students in Engineering from a university in K city. Results of survey showed that women students in Engineering were most satisfied with the usefulness of counseling and next with male professor's attitude as counselor. Counseling needs of female students in Engineering was highest on receiving concrete information on finding a job from counseling and next to it on understanding women students. Results of focus group interview and suggestions for the study in the future were presented respectively.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.34-45
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• 2008

The present study is designed to explore psychological correlates of career barrier of female college students in engineering fields by investigating psychological characteristics of female students and by comparing them with those of male students. For these ends 1,968 female and male students in 8 universities nation-wide completed the questionnaire which includes the measures for self career aspiration, self-efficacy, satisfaction and expectation in engineering career. The results of our study revealed female students scored significantly lower than male students in all of these variables. In addition, the developmental patterns of female and male students differ significantly; Male students aspiration, self-efficacy, expectation and satisfaction increased with the school experience whereas those of female students did not show any change or decrease. The results call for the intervention to improve the psychological vulnerability of female students in engineering field.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.3-11
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• 2014

This study investigated the effects of WIE(Women into Engineering) programs on women engineers' employment and career duration. For this study, the 91 female graduates with a degree in the field of engineering of K university who graduated from 2010 to 2013 were collected. The female graduates with a degree in the field of engineering of K university were divided into 4 groups-an employment group of relevant field of major, an employment group of irrelevant field of major, a group of graduate school, and a group of unemployment. The results were: first, the female graduates' program participation scores showed meaningful diversity according to the types of employment of female graduates with a degree in the field of engineering. Among the 4 types of employment of female graduates with a degree in the field of engineering, the group of graduate schoolers got the highest program participation scores, and the employment group of relevant field of major got the second scores, the group of unemployment got the third scores, and the employment group of irrelevant field of major got the last scores. Second, The female graduates' program participation scores showed meaningful diversity according to the career duration of female graduates with a degree in the field of engineering. The career duration in accordance with the program participation scores showed meaningful difference between the employment group of relevant field of major and the employment group of irrelevant field of major.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.46-54
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• 2011

The present study was carried out to investigate gender-related attitudes of professors in engineering as a socio-environmental factor for career barriers of female engineering students. For this purpose, 220 professors, 169 in engineering and 51 in non-engineering, completed questionnaires that evaluated gender-related knowledge, behavior, and career expectations. Our results showed that both engineering and non-engineering professors showed a low level of knowledge of gender differences. Both groups selected soft skills such as leadership, initiative and self efficacy as lacking in female students, rather than their academic skills. Professors in engineering showed higher expectations of female students pursuing a career in engineering but lower expectations for working on core projects and taking leadership at the workplace than the professors in non-engineering. The level of gender-sensitivity related to teaching was lower for professors in engineering than those in non-engineering, although professors in engineering evaluated their gender sensitivity higher than the evaluation of their female students. In addition, professors in engineering opted less for developing programs for female student career development in engineering than professors in non-engineering, and they showed a low interest level in participating in such programs. This study showed that the efforts to make engineering professors aware of the characteristics of female students should precede the development of education programs.

• Architectural research
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.63-73
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• 2020

This paper reports problems of current working environment on construction site in South Korea from a female laborers' point of view and proposes solutions to improve the environment. To investigate and analyze the problems, a questionnaire survey and a focus group interview were conducted with 341 engineers and 557 laborers. Among them female engineers and female laborers were 51 and 136 respectively. Findings are the facilities related with welfare facilities such as lavatories, shower rooms, lounges and changing room, etc. for women were not sufficient and even not installed only for women because all of the planners for the facilities were men and The Standard of Estimate does not consider gender distinction. The data on the trade and the number of female laborers were not recorded and this study confirmed the number and the proportion of female laborers according to construction progress i.e. the proportion of female laborers were 0% ~ 11% (average 6%) at 26 construction sites having 2% ~ 92 % construction progress. In order to solve these problems, gender education for the welfare facility planner is required and the current Standard of Estimate should be revised considering female laborers after collecting the site data for the number of female laborers according progress and the increase in the construction cost should be reflected in the contract amount accordingly. Conclusively temporary work planning related with welfare facilities should be established and conducted in terms of gender equality at construction sites. In addition, improving working environment on construction sites for female laborers will enhance the company's image and also helping solve the labor shortage problem by women laborers engaging in construction industry easily.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.29-40
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• 2021

This research aims to examine the relationship between major satisfaction and psychological well-being of female engineering students. To achieve this goal, first, differences in major satisfaction and psychological well-being among engineering students were examined. Second, differences in major satisfaction and psychological well-being among female undergraduate students were investigated. In addition, the effects of psychological well-being, as perceived by undergraduate students by gender and major, on major satisfaction were explored. A total of three hundred and forty-nine (349) undergraduate students from two universities in Korea responded to survey based on a two-variables scale. The findings were that, firstly, male engineering students scored higher in two variables including their most sub-factors, and that gender differences in relation satisfaction as well as positive relationship with others, autonomy, and environmental mastery were statistically significant. Secondly, female engineering students scored higher in major satisfaction and several sub-factors of two variables, and that major differences in major satisfaction (total), social perception satisfaction, and autonomy - a sub-factor of psychological well-being - were statistically significant. Thirdly, a positive correlation among major satisfaction and psychological well-being was identified. Finally, psychological well-being could explain about 19% of major satisfaction. The practical implications of these findings are discussed herein, with attention on education for promotion of major satisfaction.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.57-62
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to develop an educational model based on the capacity analysis of college students. In order to measure the learning ability of female science and engineering students, we used various tools to derive core competencies. The competency element of human resources implementation, the element of learning achievement area in the undergraduate education actual condition survey, and the analysis of the learning achievement elements of the engineering certification program were analyzed and the development of teaching method was searched to find ways to increase the competence of female students. In addition, we developed a model that can apply the development of pedagogy in the curriculum to the liberal arts, majors, and comparative courses, and presented the internship in field experience area, the improvement of on the spot learning, and teaching method and guidance to enhance the female students' competence. Also, as a case study of the proposed teaching method, new curriculum of 'Understanding of Big Data' which is the basis of the fourth industrial revolution technology in the second semester of 2016 was developed and applied to the education model. The results of this study are very positive, and we can expect the effectiveness of the new education model to enhance the learning ability and capacity of female students.

• Journal of Engineering Education Research
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.31-42
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• 2020

This study aims to analyze the research trends of female engineering students focused on domestic research and to suggest implications for future researches. For this purpose, 67 domestic researches (academic articles & graduate theses) which were published since 1996 were collected using the academic research information service and the National Assembly Library search service. All of these 67 researches have been reviewed and classified according to analytical criteria such as publication year, research method, journal's research field and research subjects. Our findings show that firstly, related research on female engineering students has been growing since 1996. Secondly, there were more researches of both academic journals and graduate theses, using quantitative method compared to those with the other research methods. Thirdly, the research themes could be classified as follows: gender-awareness, female engineering students'(hereafter, FES) psychological variables, customized education for FES, career related variables, FES's properties and counselling for them. Fourth, regarding the result of analysis on the research topic, 41.79% of the researches were related to FES's 'career' related factors as well as diverse correlates. Based on these findings, it is necessary to continue studying on FES using various research methods as well as adopting different research perspectives. Also, practical and educational treatments for FES are required with particular attention to their individual variables.