Career Stage Analysis of Women Civil Engineering Faculty Perceptions of Job Satisfaction: Fid-Bau Portal

Career Stage Analysis of Women Civil Engineering Faculty Perceptions of Job Satisfaction

Ortiz, Alisha Youngblood / Nicholls, Gillian M. / Leonard, Kathleen M.

In the past several decades, women have entered the engineering profession in larger numbers across the United States. Concurrently, a larger percentage of women have entered engineering academia, although they are still greatly outnumbered by male faculty. Although the numbers and progress of women in engineering academia are the subject of ongoing study, there was a lack of detailed analysis specifically of woman civil engineering faculty. One of the objectives of this study was to examine the perceptions of job satisfaction by woman civil engineering faculty relating to issues specific to academia to assess whether perceptions vary across the different academic ranks. Data were collected by designing a survey and distributing it to all woman civil engineering faculty from universities with ABET accredited civil engineering programs within the United States. The data collected included demographic variables, and perceptions of job satisfaction, available mentoring, academic climate, and sense of inclusion in an environment still largely led by male faculty. It was found that approximately 14.6% of the faculty in civil engineering departments surveyed were woman. This paper presents analysis of women faculty perceptions of the academic environment, support, and overall job satisfaction. Understanding these facets of job satisfaction is necessary to ensure that women in engineering academia have the proper tools, working conditions, and effective mentoring to successfully achieve promotion and tenure. Having more women successfully pursue careers in engineering academia provides additional role models for women engineering students and a clear example that engineering can be a rewarding career for them.