Gender as structure in the organisational socialisation of newcomer civil engineers

Publication Date

1-1-2022

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

European Journal of Engineering Education

Volume

47

Issue

1

DOI

10.1080/03043797.2021.1915251

First Page

102

Last Page

116

Abstract

While the importance of school-to-work transitions is increasingly recognised, little research has examined the roles that gender plays in those transitions. This is a problem because of the higher rates of attrition of newcomer women engineers than newcomer men engineers. To address that gap in research, this article addresses the questions: What gendered experiences and observations do practicing civil engineers have within their first three years in the workplace? And How can those experiences be accounted for in a model of organisational socialisation? Three sets of interviews were conducted with men and women early career civil engineers in the United States. A model was then created to account for the findings. Men and women had different experiences that point to ways in which gender structures organisational socialisation, and those must be accounted for in studies of organisational socialisation.

Funding Number

EEC #1929727

Funding Sponsor

National Science Foundation

Keywords

civil engineering, Gender, newcomer, organisational socialisation, retention

Department

General Engineering

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