Establishing the Relative Importance of Specific Sustainability Themes That Influence Women’s Choice of Engineering as a Career Using the Analytical Hierarchy Process

Abstract

Understanding the importance of salient factors associated with sustainability challenges that engineers are known to solve in influencing women’s choice of engineering is particularly important in this present world where a combination of these sustainability issues, the underrepresentation of women and the need for more engineers remain a challenge to the profession. However, little is known about the degree of importance of more detailed themes within the social, environmental and economic sustainability pillars in such career decisions. Consequently, the aim of this paper is to understand the relative importance of specific sustainability-themed factors influencing women’s choice of engineering, using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). An AHP structurally designed online survey was used to gather and analyze data from a sample of 414 UK and Nigeria respondents. The results showed that of all the ten sustainability-themed factors examined in this study, water quality/quantity, climate change, waste management, biodiversity, and material consumption/energy use, had a greater influence on the respondents’ choice of engineering relative to other factors. The data revealed specific rather than general sustainability themes that appeal to women’s choice of engineering. This could offer valuable insight from a recruitment strategy perspective to help engineering stakeholders to focus their attention and recruitment efforts on the most salient areas of influence.

Fire Risk Assessment of Subway Stations Based on Combination Weighting of Game Theory and TOPSIS Method

“…AHP is a subjective weighting analysis method [36][37][38][39][40]. First, a hierarchical structure model is established, followed by experts scoring the relevant factors; subsequently, a judgment matrix is constructed.…”

A Grounded Theory Approach to Uncovering the Process of How Sustainability Topics Influence Women Engineers’ Career Choice and Engagement

“…The findings suggest that highlighting sustainability topics or themes related to the social relevance of engineering, such as helping people and societal impact, could make the discipline attractive to underrepresented groups, including women [4][5][6][7]. However, as indicated in Ken-Giami et al [8], this approach provides narrow insights into only broad sustainability topics that contribute to women's engineering career choice, thus overlooking various specific sustainability topics that appeal to women's choice of engineering. This sustainability-themed concept as defined by Ken-Giami et al [8] and also utilised in this study is embedded in UNESCO's [9] definition:…”

“…However, as indicated in Ken-Giami et al [8], this approach provides narrow insights into only broad sustainability topics that contribute to women's engineering career choice, thus overlooking various specific sustainability topics that appeal to women's choice of engineering. This sustainability-themed concept as defined by Ken-Giami et al [8] and also utilised in this study is embedded in UNESCO's [9] definition:…”

“…These sustainability processes being referred to in UNESCO's [9] definition and regarded in this study as themes or topics include those that are synonymous with engineering grand challenges, which represent the role of engineers in addressing sustainability issues [10]. In their study, Ken-Giami et al [8] characterised these engineering challenges under the three broad pillars of sustainability, social, environmental and economic, to examine their influence on women's engineering choice. The findings showed that sustainability topics such as water quality/quantity, climate change, waste management, biodiversity, and material consumption/energy use had a greater influence on women's engineering choice relative to economic performance and equity themes.…”

“…In addition to the notable lack of qualitative research in this area, women engineers' perspectives of how such themes influenced their decision to choose engineering has not been studied, especially in the United Kingdom and Nigeria. Ken-Giami et al [8] highlighted the importance of conducting this understudied research area in both countries. The authors argued that addressing this gap could not only generate unique lessons and strategies for attracting women to engineering in both contexts, but it could also provide new insights into the research problem from both developed and developing nations' perspectives, especially since a significant proportion of previous studies have been conducted in the United States [4,[11][12][13], irrespective of the fact that women's underrepresentation in engineering and the complex sustainability challenges remain a global problem.…”