The female civil engineers on teaching: a case study in UDESC

Abstract

Despite the increase of female participation in engineering, teaching is still a field of masculine majority. This study aims to investigate the participation of women on Civil Engineering teaching through the case study of the Civil Engineering Department (DEC) of Santa Catarina State University (UDESC), Joinville Campus. The gender distribution of the faculties of Civil, Electrical, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering was analyzed, as well as the profile of DEC’s civil engineers. It was found that the Civil Engineering major stands out in terms of female participation in teaching compared to literature and the three other engineering majors of the Center of Technological Sciences (CCT). Two of these other majors, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering still have a female participation of less than 10% of its faculty. DEC presents an active participation of women in Integral Dedication and administrative activities, besides a decrease of the masculine participation in the same activities. Nevertheless, it’s argued that teaching needs to be seen as an opportunity of work for civil engineers, both men and women. With that, a better equity in the gender relations can occur, in a way that the female occupation on these workspaces do not be made possible just due to men’s disinterest, culminating in another gender inequality space.