Enhancement of female participation in technical study programs — A real experiment or an experienced reality? An approach from a daily operation point of view

Very often, there are complaints about low percentages of women in mechanical engineering studies. We may ask ourselves how this low percentage could be increased. There are lots of specific and scientific publications in the market drawing a very complex scheme on what to do. To complete this picture for our own measures, a team of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the FRA-UAS (Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences) organized a project with the focus on female students in our study programs. The survey results-apart from supposed points — were interesting and gave concrete hints how the teaching process could be improved. The survey stated, among other results, the big role of society's task to provide a wide range of information to girls for conducting an early socialization with technology and to generate more female role models. This cannot be plainly achieved by just one single institution. Another interesting observation not being covered by literature was the great impact of cultural aspects on female participation in technical aspects. For instance, the observations on the current teaching process to the republics of the former Soviet Union have shown that the image of “A woman's role in technology” is perceived completely different and as natural in these countries.