Gender Differences in School Students' Perceptions Towards Engineering: A Case Study From Rural South India

Gender typecasts have prevailed in higher education since time immemorial. Previous research studies have demonstrated the incongruity in gender representation in almost every higher education sector, including engineering education. Gender-specific variation in perceptions towards engineering education and the engineering profession is a significant area of interest. However, relatively little research has been conducted on gender differences in school students' attitudes and perceptions of engineering. In addition, no such previous study has surveyed students of schools on the rural outskirts. The current study intends to address this research gap by investigating the insights of school students who participated in the ‘Rural Students' Technology Enhancement Program (R-STEP).’ R-STEP was a technical training program organised by the IEEE Education Society (EdSoc) Kerala Chapter exclusively for less-privileged school students from the rural outskirts of Kerala, a southern state of India. The research study critically analysed the R-STEP participants' responses to a questionnaire survey. The questionnaire was in the regional language, Malayalam, comprising five questions each on engineering education and profession. A total of 220 school students from various districts of Kerala participated in the survey. While 62.5% of female survey respondents indicated that they want to be engineers in the future, it was a more significant 86% in the case of males. Rather interestingly, 16.1% of female participants reported that they do not want to be engineers, compared to only 3.1% of males. This research-worthy fivefold difference between male and female attitudes is critically deliberated in the paper, along with other findings from the study. The paper concludes with a few recommendations to address rural school students' gender-specific attitudes towards engineering.