Abstract

RODRIGUEZ, Carmen; CARO, Mª de las Mercedes Inda  and  GARCIA, Lindsay Martínez. Engineering students' discourse about gender social norms. RISTI [online]. 2024, n.56, pp.98-113.  Epub Dec 31, 2024. ISSN 1646-9895.  https://doi.org/10.17013/risti.56.98-113.

The influence of gender social norms on vocation in STEM disciplines is analyzed from a qualitative methodology that used life stories of 13 women studying engineering. In addition, three focus groups were held, with some of them, to analyze their professional expectations. The results indicate that gender social norms are conveyed through the dynamics that the participants sustain from childhood to university. It is concluded that they are women unwilling to bow to social conformity, which has helped them to persist in vocational choice. Finally, it is argued that they have faced micromachisms in university classrooms, and that they are capable to anticipate sexual discrimination in the workplace. It concludes that it is necessary to reverse gender stereotypes through a multi-causal intervention that relies on educational models.

Keywords : social norms; gender; STEM; women.

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