Inclusion of the gender equality sustainable development goal in engineering teaching and research

Abstract

This work explores how gender mainstreaming can be included in the teaching and research of engineering, a framed discipline belonging to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (known with the acronym STEM), an area of ​​knowledge known for having (especially in the Western countries) a low proportion of female students. There is little research and manuals that address gender-specific issues in this area of ​​knowledge and how they could be addressed. During the 2018/2019 academic year, a pilot project on gender mainstreaming was carried out at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – BarcelonaTech (UPC) as part of these actions. For this purpose, 41 voluntary teachers from 8 Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees of the UPC have been recruited. Social and gender relevance of the subjects, inclusive methodology, classroom management and assessment have been considered in this research. One of the tools obtained from this study is a guide of recommendations to be used by the teaching and research staff to introduce the changes that make possible the effective incorporation of the gender equality Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) in engineering teaching and research. The recommendations proposed in this work derive from the research carried out for this project. The work, therefore, paves the way for further insight into the specific gender bias in engineering and is an essential tool for people involved in teaching and research in the engineering field from a critical spirit.