Fighting the gender drop off from STEM careers throughout the University-Industry Collaboration: Effects of Corporate Mentorship Academic Article in Scopus uri icon

abstract

  • The number of women in STEM careers has historically been low compared to the number of men enrolled. This is due to cultural causes, customs and stigmatization of engineering professionals. In the best cases, between 14-20% of women have been found in STEM careers at university. A private university in Mexico, committed to gender equity, has tried through different strategies to increase the number of women in STEM careers. One of these strategies is an initiative called Ingenia (Women in Engineering and Sciences) that includes actions focused on integral development, prevention of discrimination, among others.A notable effort by Ingenia Women in Engineering and Sciences to increase the participation and retention of women in STEM fields consists of organizing mentoring sessions in which executives from various corporations act as mentors for female students from this university pursuing careers in STEM fields. In this report we analyze the impact of having direct contact with high-level managers (CEOs and high direction managers) of training partners as mentors for female students studying engineering. During the mentoring sessions, the experts share their experiences and achievements and the obstacles they have had to overcome to reach their place today. For this research, a qualitative method was used, with a sample of 210 female engineering students participating in the mentoring sessions.The results indicate that through personalized interaction they can not only take their mentor as a role model but also motivate their professional path to have this interaction. Much of the success of this initiative is contact and personal reflection with women already in leader positions in industry. Additionally, the students who carried out the experience with managers of training partner companies declared greater strength in their performance and in their career as STEM students. Data analysis revealed that 83.4% of the students reinforced their decision to be part of STEM careers and 88.9% found the advice of successful people within companies motivating. Additionally, the comments among the students were very supportive of each other and asked for interaction with other mentors. Our results clearly indicate that personalized reflection helps to understand the problems of the unfavorable environment for women within STEM careers and helps reduce career desertion. © 2024 IEEE.

publication date

  • January 1, 2024