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

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.

Gender Equity in the Marketing Academy: From Performative to Institutional Allyship

The fair treatment of women in the workplace, where they experience both opportunities and constraints, has been on and off higher education agendas for decades. Yet, institutionalised gendered constraints still shape the careers of female academics, including those in the marketing academy, resulting in disrupted or obstacle-heavy career journeys and the underrepresentation of women in senior positions. Furthermore, progress towards gender equity is hampered by institutional resistance to change, favouring performative rather than genuine and transformational institutional allyship. We draw upon personal experiences, recollections and anecdotes garnered over the years – synthesised with literature – to examine systemic gendered constraints within our collective career span. We propose institutional allyship as the intentional efforts needed by the marketing academy to address systemic and structural gender inequities and achieve second-order change by integrating gender equity outcomes throughout organisational decision-making. Specifically, we suggest nominated actions within a Gender Equity and Inclusion Charter for the Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy (ANZMAC) and its member universities as a first step.

Gendered Norms and Family Roles in the Narratives of Hungarian Elite Members and Their Partners

Our paper contributes to studies on the enduring underrepresentation of women in elite positions through the analysis of elite members’ and their partners’ narratives on career and partnership. Using a dataset of 34 individual interviews (17 couples) among Hungary’s political, economic, and cultural elite, we explore how narrators project themselves in the context of their marital relationships and family roles. We identify three pairs of narratives during our analysis. Narratives show the positions from where narrators discuss the theme of career and partnership as elite member/partner, power couple/non-power couple, and male/female. Our findings show that narrative positioning is significantly gendered, and it is strongly connected to the traditional gendered role system. Having an elite position or pursuing a career calls for explanation only from women. In the meantime, a non-power couple position calls for explanation from men, which suggests the increasing presence of the norm of equality in the Hungarian elite.

Aspects of Women’s Leadership in the Organisation: Systematic Literature Review

In most organisations, women are underrepresented in top positions. Many aspects of Women’s Leadership are studied in the literature for underrepresentation of women leaders. This study aims to analyse and consolidate the insights about those aspects of Women’s Leadership, which gives them a stable and secure position in the organisation, beyond the unseen walls of gender discrimination. These aspects are barriers, enablers, strengths and weaknesses of Women’s Leadership. The research method used for the study is a systematic literature review method. Peer-reviewed, scholarly journal articles and book references between 1990 and 2021 identified from the Scopus and Web of Sciences databases are considered for the study. The result showed much uniformity in the ‘Women’s Leadership’ phenomenon, globally. This research found that Women’s Leadership studies are mostly conducted in areas such as social sciences, business and management, medicine, education, etc. It also found that most women-leadership-related studies are conducted in developed countries where the percentage of women leaders is comparatively higher than in other industries. Still, women leaders in both developed and developing countries face similar barriers during their careers. The gender gap and the glass ceiling they have to break are some of the issues experienced by women in any organisation. Organisational bias, lack of assertiveness and poor networking also pose barriers to Women’s Leadership. Yet, there are some enablers for Women’s Leadership, such as mentoring, good training programmes and workplace culture. However, maintaining a work–life balance, working under pressure and excluding informal communication are considered as limitations for Women’s Leadership. Strengths, such as high emotional intelligence, empathy, democratic leadership style, sincerity and ability to make decisions under critical circumstances benefit the organisation. This study will help to get an integrated and consolidated theoretical review of different aspects of Women’s Leadership in the organisation. Moreover, the study can help to implement various organisational policies to increase the percentage of women in leadership roles.

Motor unit recruitment strategies of the vastus lateralis according to sex

Despite men exhibiting greater muscle strength than women it remains unclear if there are sex- based differences in muscle recruitment strategies e.g. motor unit (MU) recruitment and modulation of firing rate with increasing force. These differences may explain underrepresentation of women and mixed-sex cohorts in studies of neuromuscular function. Twenty-nine healthy male and thirty-one healthy female participants (18-35 years) were studied. Intramuscular electromyography was used to record individual motor unit potentials (MUPs) and near fibre MUPs from the vastus lateralis (VL) during 10% and 25% maximum isometric voluntary contractions (MVC), and spike-triggered averaging was used to obtain motor unit number estimates (MUNE) of the VL. Multilevel mixed-effects linear regression models were used to investigate the effects of sex and contraction levels. Men exhibited greater muscle strength (p<0.001) and size (p<0.001) than women, with no difference in force steadiness at 10% or 25% MVC. Although women showed higher firing rate (FR) (p=0.014) and FR variability (p=0.044), both sexes showed similar increasing trajectories from low- to mid-level contractions with no sex x contraction level interactions. With increasing contraction level, both men and women exhibited greater MUP size (p<0.001) and neuromuscular junction transmission instability (p<0.001). There were no sex differences in MUNE calculated at 25% MVC. Although some sex-based neuromuscular differences are apparent, similar MU recruitment strategies are employed to increase force production during low to moderate contractions. These findings of notable similarities between sexes support the use of mixed sex cohorts in studies of this nature.

P.212 Demographic Trends in Canadian Neurosurgery Training & Academic Neurosurgery

Background: Exploring current trends in career outcomes can guide further expansion and diversity in neurosurgery demographics, as well as inform medical trainees of qualifications required for a career in neurosurgery. This study therefore aims to explore temporal trends and gender distribution in training, teaching, and leadership positions among currently practicing neurosurgeons. Methods: A list of practicing Canadian neurosurgeons and their certification year, degrees, fellowships, and teaching positions was created using publicly available information and phone/email confirmation by surgeons. Results: We identified 297 neurosurgeons currently practicing in Canada (F=32, M=265). There was a significant trend towards a greater number of neurosurgical staff having at least one advanced degree or fellowship over time (p=0.0012, p=0.0048 respectively), with no significant difference between proportions of males and females. Within academia, women represent 33% of adjunct professors, 8% of associate professors, and 15.2% of full professors. Two neurosurgical departments in Canada are led by women. Conclusions: Literature shows there is an underrepresentation of women in neurosurgery, particularly in higher-ranking teaching and leadership positions, yet our results suggest there is no significant differences in qualifications between males and females. Further exploration is needed to identify reasons underlying these trends and propose solutions to promote growth in the field.

SNSF Datastory - SNSF gender monitoring: are women underrepresented or underfunded?

The Swiss research landscape suffers from a chronic underrepresentation of women. This can also be seen in the share of women applying for funding at the SNSF. But how did this share evolve over time? And have women been less successful to raise funds?

Will We Ever Close the Gender Gap Among Top Mathematics Achievers? Analysis of Recent Trends by Race in Advanced Placement (AP) Exams

Analyzing the test scores of more than 10,000,000 students who participated in the Advanced Placement (AP) math exams from 1997 to 2019, this study examined the direction and magnitude of the trend in gender disparity by race in participation in and top achievement on AP Calculus AB, Calculus BC, and Statistics exams. The results of this study indicated that, in general, females’ representation in all three AP exams increased significantly. Although the findings indicated that the female-to-male ratios (FMRs) in participation in the AP math exams increased significantly from 1997 to 2019 and favored females for all races, the gender disparities among top achievers for all math exams are still substantial. The relationships between the FMRs in participation and top achievement for all AP math exams were also analyzed within races, and the possible impacts of these findings within the context of the underrepresentation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields were also discussed.