Understanding Female Students’ Choice of a Construction Management Undergraduate Degree Program: Case Study at an Australian University

Oo, Bee Lan; Li, S.; Zhang, L.

doi:10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000365

Cited by 18 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…It is worth noting that these two factors have recorded low variability in responses as demonstrated by the corresponding standard deviations (i.e., the lowest of 0.62 for F2 and second lowest of 0.91 for F1). These findings support previous findings that career opportunities and opportunities for getting generous, lucrative wages with good earning potential in the industry should be raised with female graduates in order to attract more women into the industry (Francis and Prosser, 2014;Bigelow et al, 2015;Oo, Li and Zhang, 2018). While the median value of F7 has not been found statistically significantly above three, this third top-ranked factor indicates that female graduates' self-efficacy and strong confidence in their abilities to perform construction tasks do play a role in their choice for a career in construction.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%

“…Ninety-six percent of their female CM student respondents from universities in the US planned to work in the construction industry upon graduation. This finding is really encouraging as the percentages of female enrolments for CM programs in the US are generally below 10% of total enrolment (Oo, Li and Zhang, 2018). In Australia, the enrolment trends were between 10 and 20% of total CM program enrolments (Oo and Widjaja, 2018).…”

Section: Women's Choice Of Career In Constructionmentioning

confidence: 76%

“…For empirical investigations, it is noted that authors have begun to focus on female students in CM undergraduate degree program (e.g., Koch, Greenan and Newton, 2009;Adogbo, Ibrahim and Ibrahim, 2015;Bigelow et al 2015;Escamilla, Ostadalimakhmalbaf and Bigelow, 2016). Oo, Li and Zhang (2018) claimed that this shift in focus can be partly explained by the reported high proportion of female CM graduates who decided not to enter the industry upon graduation (Bennett, Davidson and Galeand, 1999;Ling and Poh, 2004); and the difficulties in recruitment of young graduates into the construction industry in different countries (Ling and Ho, 2013;Ling, Leow and Lee, 2016). The other possible explanation is the proposition that if female enrolment in CM programs increased, so would the female participation in the construction industry (Bigelow et al 2015).…”

Section: Women's Choice Of Career In Constructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Early career women in construction: Are their career expectations being met?

Oo¹,

Lim²,

Feng³

2020

CEB

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The recruitment, retention and development of early career women have always been a challenge in the construction industry. With the focus on early career women or new female construction management degree graduate hires in construction, this study explores: (i) factors influencing their choice of career in construction; (ii) the extent of which their career expectations were met in their first few years of job experience; and (iii) how their met or unmet career expectations are related their overall job satisfaction. Data was collected using an online survey questionnaire. The results show that the top significant factors influencing the respondents’ career choice are career opportunities and belief of getting better pay. Their career expectations, on the other hand, were met or exceeded to a great extent for almost all the measurement items. The results also show that the respondents have a relatively high overall job satisfaction level. Although there is lack of evidence that their overall job satisfaction increased as met career expectations increased, there are statistically significant positive correlations among the career expectation measurement items. These findings have implications for human resource practices of construction employers that aimed to attract early career women into the industry, and to reinforce their met career expectations and job satisfaction.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Women's Choice Of Career In Constructionmentioning

confidence: 76%

Section: Women's Choice Of Career In Constructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Early career women in construction: Are their career expectations being met?

Oo¹,

Lim²,

Feng³

2020

CEB

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“…The vast majority of engineering students and graduates are male, so there is a considerable amount of research focused on determining the possible factors or causes that make this phenomenon to happen (Marra et al 2012;Álvarez-Lires et al 2014;Stanko et al 2014;Kori et al 2016;Lee et al 2017;Oo et al 2018;Olmedo-Torre et al 2018). In the study of Álvarez-Lires et al (2014), the authors analyzed the reasons of students' disinterest or aversion to engineering careers in Galicia, Spain, through the use of questionnaires, interviews and discussion groups; they found in the results, as in the works of Marra et al (2012), that there are mainly problems of teaching science and technology subjects, causing them to avoid choosing engineering careers.…”

Section: Category 3 Factors Associated With the Demand For Engineerimentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Factors Associated to the Enrollment and Demand of Computing-Related Careers

Mata-López

Tobón²

2018

Social Sciences

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Despite the great need for computer-related career professionals, some universities that offer specialties to develop professionals with knowledge to cover the mention need, present a decrease in enrollment, which can cause a wide variety of problems. That is why in this paper we set out to investigate what the main factors that directly or indirectly affect student enrollment in computer-related careers are, to establish a literature-based starting point, and to help select the best possible strategy to improve enrollment. To reach this goal, we did a documentary research, categorizing each one of the factors with its respective analysis. In the results, we explain several challenges that educators face, due to the evolution of society needs, two of them are: teaching-learning models and technology; besides, it became evident that the relevance of this academic programs remain available since there is a high demand for these professionals in Mexico, as well as in the world; finally, we showed some intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors that have an essential relevance at the time that a student chooses the career to study. On the other hand, we reflected that the perception of everything that involves the study of a Computing-related career is a factor to be considered in the selection of an educational program of higher education. This study could be a reference for universities that are facing decreasing enrollment concerns. In conclusion, we analyzed and identified the main factors that have an impact on the demand for a career related to engineering, providing possible lines of action for increasing school enrollment.

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“…STEM fields, including construction, have traditionally been dominated by males drawing attention to gender disparities known to exist [6]- [8]. This is often attributed to perceived factors such as aversion to mathematics, how well prepared students are for college-level mathematics, and self-efficacy, especially among URM groups [9], [10]. Recognizing the concern, this study explores the perceptions of those who have chosen construction management as major to understand what factors and future aspirations lead to their career choice.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Construction Management Technology Students Choice of Major

Sparkling¹,

Lucietto²,

Sinha³

et al.

2019 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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Anthony Sparkling is an Assistant Professor in Construction Management Technology (CMT) at Purdue University where he teaches courses in mechanical and electrical systems, electrical estimating, and electrical construction. His research interests include teams, organizations, contract governance, organizational processes, project/team performance and behavioral feedback systems. Meanwhile, he has a growing interest in the skilled-trades shortage in the United States.

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Understanding Female Students’ Choice of a Construction Management Undergraduate Degree Program: Case Study at an Australian University

Cited by 18 publications

References 21 publications

Early career women in construction: Are their career expectations being met?

Early career women in construction: Are their career expectations being met?

Analysis of Factors Associated to the Enrollment and Demand of Computing-Related Careers

Construction Management Technology Students Choice of Major

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