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STUDIA EDUKACYJNE NR 47/2018 eMilia sZyMcZaK Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu WOMEN IN ENGEENERING – DYNAMICS OF ACCESS TO STUDIES AND PROFESSIONAL CARRER abstract. Szymczak Emilia, Women in Engeenering – Dynamics of Access to Studies and Professional Career [Kobiety w zawodach inżynierskich – dynamika dostępu do studiów i kariery zawodowej]. Studia Edukacyjne nr 47, 2018, Poznań 2018, pp. 173-184. Adam Mickiewicz University Press. ISSN 1233- 6688. DOI: 10.14746/se.2018.47.11 This article describes the history of women in the engineering world, the changing social and econo- mic conditions and women’s rising educational aspirations (it appears that they are interested in the traditional scientific disciplines but they also increasingly with to try typically male – form the point of view of traditional socialization – educational and then professional careers). The article presents the dynamics of the access of women to higher education through the years, including especially scientific and technical fields of study. It also presents the statistical data about the participation of women in the stereotypically male areas of education. This article provides historical examples of women, famo- us because of their spectacular scientific achievements. Key words: woman, Technical University, engineering, identity, career, education In recent years, we can observe the growth of women’s participation in engineering studies. Within 10 years of the campaign (Girls to technical uni- versities), the number of women in this type of higher education increased by nearly 9 thousands of people (from 95 621 people in 2008/2009 academic year to 104 039 in 20171). It’s especially interesting, considering the phenomena of decreasing number of students in Poland (since 2007/2008 academic year the number of all students decreased by nearly seven hundreds thousands people2). The biggest increase of rate of studying Polish women took place 1 Kobiety na politechnikach, Raport 2007-2017, Fundacja Edukacyjna „Perspektywy”, marzec 2017, s. 3, źródło: http://www.dziewczynynapolitechniki.pl/pdfy/Raport_Kobiety_na_poli- technikach_2017.pdf, [dostęp: 20.03.2018]. 2 Ibidem . 174 Emilia Szymczak at technical universities (between 2006 and 2010 women studying on techni- cal universities constituted 9% of all studying women, whereas in the years 2015-2016 they represented almost 14% of them all3). We can notice that the number of women studying at technical universities rises, but it is still not big enough to speak about a total social or cultural revolution, because in 2017 women studying in this area of studies constituted 37% of all students (altho- ugh the number of them is still rising4). For this reason, due to the information included in the report Potencjał kobiet dla branży technologiczne form these ten- dencies were described by the oxymoron “crawling revolution” .5 It is worth to see that even though in the numbers the growth of the participation of the women is not spectacular, the trend and dynamic of this phenomenon shows a significant change. Nevertheless, let us go back to the beginning of the presence of women at technical schools. Before, engineering was accepted as a formal profession, wo- men with engineering skills sought fame as inventors. One of the female inven- tors was Hypatia of Alexandria (a daughter of Theon of Alexandria, living at the turn of the IV/V C. E.), to whom invention of the areometer is attributed.6 Other women are: Tabitha Babbit (18-19th century), an American manufactu- rer of tools and inventor of the first circular saw, Sarah Guppy (1770-1852), an English woman who patented the foundations of the bridge, Rita de Moraes Sarmento (1872-1931), the first woman who in 1894 gained a title of engineer at the Technical University in Porto, which means that she could have been the first officially accepted engineer in Europe. One of the first official approved engineers in Europe was also Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu (1887-1973). In 1909 she was accepted at the Technical University of Berlin. In 1912 she graduated from the university with a degree in engineering, specializing in chemistry, probably becoming one of the first female engineers in the world. A relevant point is the middle of 19th century, when « the storm at univer- sities » took place; it was mainly the activity of numerous women’s associa- tions and organizations emerging in the 19th and 20th centuries.7 One of the countries, which was one of the first ones to open universities to women in the 40s in the 19th century was Switzerland.8 The new educational opportunities in Switzerland resulted in the flow of women from other countries wanting to deepen their education (including Polish and Rusian women). Taking into 3 Ibidem . 4 Ibidem . 5 Potencjał kobiet dla branży technologicznej, Raport badawczy, Fundacja Edukacyjna „Per- spektywy”, Warszawa 2015, p. 8. 6 Hypatia z Aleksandrii, źródło: http://4kyws.ua.edu/HYPATIA.html, [dostęp: 22.03.2018]. 7 M. Bogucka, Gorsza płeć. Kobieta w dziejach Europy od antyku po wiek XXI, Warszawa 2006, p . 259-263 . 8 D. Pankowska, Wychowanie a role płciowe, Gdańsk 2005, p. 116. Women in Engeenering – Dynamics of Access to Studies and Professional Carrer 175 account the context of the analyses, it is worth to mention that the opening of universities to women didn’t mean that they had access to all the fields of study. In addition, their presence in education required sometimes a permis- sion for attending lectures or obtaining academic degrees.9 In this manner, men could choose from study courses such as: physical science, biology, en- gineering, law, medicine and economics. Whereas women studied nursing, initial teaching and so called economics of household.10 That situation, repre- sented again a natural confirmation of a dichotomous version of the world, strongly rooted in the social consciousness essentialist paradigm, which for many years was the dominant prism of the perception of the world as well as „ a social guillotine » clearly separating two realities: female and masculine. Confirmation of this dichotomy was for example the creation of an institute for future governesses in Poland in 1825, which prepared women (in terms of two-stage approach : 3 years of initial education and 4 years of vocational course) to undertake the profession of teacher in a domestic space.11 In the United States, women didn’t have permission to study with men in colleges till 1832.12 One of the first female graduates from American Uni- versities were 3 students: Mary Hosford, Mary Caroline Rudd and Elizabeth Smith Prall, who in 1841 obtained a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College.13 Conversely, Ellen Swallow Richards was a first woman, who in 1873 received a diploma in chemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.14 Where- as, in 1876 Elizabeth Bragg was the first woman to obtain a title of engineering in the United States (she obtained a diploma in civil engineering from the University of California in Berkeley).15 It is also worth to mention the period of the First and Second world War. In that time, the access of women to stereotypical male professions was al- most open. The situation was integrally determined by the contemporary so- cial and political conditions, when no one investigated and discredited the rights and opportunities attributed to the women. They could have realized successfully their professional responsibilities in the typical male domains 9 M. Młodożeniec, A. Knapińska, Czy nauka wciąż ma męską płeć? Udział kobiet w nauce, Na- uka, 2013, 2, p. 47. 10 C.M. Renzetti, D.J. Curran, Kobiety, mężczyźni, społeczeństwo, przekł. A. Gromkowska-Me- losik, Warszawa 2005, p . 143 . 11 S. Walczewska, Damy, rycerze i feministki: kobiecy dyskurs emancypacyjny w Polsce, Kraków 1999, p . 70-76 . 12 C.M. Renzetti, D.J. Curran, Kobiety, mężczyźni, p . 142 . 13 OberlinHistoryFrequentlyAskedQuestions and Timeline, źródło: http://www.oberlinherita- gecenter.org/researchlearn/historyfaqs, [dostęp:15.03.2018]. 14 J. Varrasi, PromotingWomen in Engineering, źródło: https://www.asme.org/career-edu- cation/articles/leadership-skills/promoting-women-in-engineering, [dostęp: 15.01.2018]. 15 Women in Engineering, http://alltogether.swe.org/2016/03/women-in-engineering-hi- story/, [dostęp: 15.01.2018]. 176 Emilia Szymczak like: ironwork, shipbuilding or welding.16 An example of such woman can be Lois Graham (1925-2013), who finished Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1946. She was also the first woman in the United States who obtained a doc- toral degree in mechanical engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology.17 In Poland, women obtained a right of studying at universities In Lviv and Cracow in 1897 (excluding Flying University, which functioned in a clandesti- ne manner since 1882 in Warsaw). Earlier, women accomplished their higher education abroad – for example in aforementioned Switzerland.18 Unfortuna- tely, their return to their homeland and efforts for starting their professional careers, because of the still existing social and cultural resistance, were not always ended succesfuly. This specific situation can be illustrated by a double winner of a Nobel Prize Maria Skłodowska-Curie, who after returning from the studies done at a university in Paris (and earlier on the Flying Universi- ty19), tried to gain employment at the Jagiellonian University and were rejec- ted (finally, she became a professor on a elite Sorbonne in Paris20) . Analysing the information about the history of polytechnics functioning in Poland, it is hard to find traces concerning the participation of women. All the statistics on famous graduates and academics form mainly a list of men with only individual achievements examples of female students and gradu- ates. The reason of this situation could have been the educational offer, which included mostly courses of study related to the domains typically concerned as male. As can be deduced, this fact represented, for many women, clear social bariers which weren’t questioned because of the habitual beliefs and values.
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