ENGR 482 – Engineering Ethics
1st Response Paper
Rought Draft

Modernization: Friend or Foe? Engineering Gender Trends in Qatar
By Karim Yacout

Aggie Honor Code
“On my honor, as an Aggie, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid on this academic work”
For many years gender discrimination between men and women in Engineering has been the converse of many authors and researchers; each trying to search for a reason for its continuation and possible ways to decrease the existing gender gap. The purpose of this paper is to propose a new approach to understand and limit gender discrimination in Engineering. The approach consists of three components if they are present they will help decrease gender gap in Engineering. These components are a strong economy that is driven by the need for engineers, a culture that encourages and supports the development of women in engineering, and lastly the abundance of engineering opportunities. In this paper I will be using Qatar as a case study for my arguments because I believe that Qatar managed to include all three components and the results showed a real decrease in gender gap in engineering.
Strong Economy
Many studies have been carried out by authors arguing that economic gender inequality is likely to decline with economic growth. Numerous arguments believe that gender discrimination in employment and wages involves extra costs for companies, but in the presence of an economic growth that would limit it (Cuberes & Teignier‐Baqué 4). In addition some authors carried out studies that resulted in data proving that female labor participation increases with income and increases in per capita income lead to reductions in gender inequality (Cuberes & Teignier‐Baqué 11). A relevant case study for these arguments is Qatar.
In the past Qatar’s economy was quite modest and employment rates were low especially for women. Women at that time were mainly housewives that raised their children and managed her household. After the discovery of Oil, Qatar’s economy boomed rapidly till it became one of the richest countries in the world. In the process, the demand for engineering jobs increased due to wide investment of engineering companies. This lead to an increase in salaries and wages, which in turn led to an increase in female participation. With the presence of more women in engineering fields, they become more accepted which leads to the decline of discrimination.
In retrospect, Qatar’s example proves that a strong economy can lead to the diminish of gender gap in engineering but economic growth is just not enough, which introduces me to my next component “Culture”.
Culture
I strongly believe that before comparing gender gaps in engineering, a person must first understand the culture and the society where they take place. Supporting my argument, Sandra and Anne state based on Herrick’s study that to understand gender differences we must realize them from the specific cultural site in which they take place (17).
When analyzing gender gaps in Engineering, we narrow it down to the physical interactions between men and women, and the behavior of these interactions but according to Herrick’s argument “ ...concentrating on male or female interactional styles can lead to stereotypes that limit the range of interactional strategies open to individuals” (18). We need to uncover where these manners arise and the key is to understand the culture’s influence. Using our case study, Qatar’s culture is influenced by Islamic Bedouin Arabic traditions. In the past, these traditions included the segregation of women and men in public areas, women usually were not educated and if they did they needed the consent of their parents. Qatar was not the ideal place for women to become engineers, but as time progressed and Qatar started to develop, some of these customs started to change. The introduction of technology brought with it many western ideas that were not common to the region. Slowly these ideas became diffused into the society, desegregated schools became common, interactions between men and women were normal. Adding up all these influences created an opportunity for women to seek engineering degrees, and ultimately become successful engineers. The more involvement of women leads to decline in gender inequality.
Opportunity
The last component to decreasing gender gap in engineering is opportunity. As I previously mentioned before increasing the participation of women in engineering jobs is a factor in helping eliminate gender gap but how will women get involved if they are not provided with the workspace or the education needed to function as professional engineers. Based on data gathered from Maura Jenkins and Robert Keim, they demonstrate that on average, the graduation/retention rates and GPAs of female students are higher than those of the male students (S2H-13). This data clearly indicates that women if given the same opportunities as men, they perform extremely well, even some better than males.
Qatar’s leading role in education and through Qatar Foundation brought to the region a handful of international universities which provided fine education in multiple disciplines. Texas A&M in particular offered the study of engineering for both men and women, and currently I believe the percentage of Qatari women exceeds men.
Critics argue that gender trends in engineering need to be examined by looking at the face to face interactions between Men and Women, but I believe that is not sufficient enough. Using Sandra’s and Annes’s findings, they stated that “…successful teamwork is the result of processes that are more complex than gender alone” (17). I strongly believe that these complex processes include the three components I discussed in the paper because they give us a better view of how these interactions developed and what is driving them. Another critic argues that the issue lies in the origins of ethical theories. She argues that current codes of ethics are based on the concept of “moral hero” (Alison 40). She believes that such concept is masculine and individualistic hence does not serve men and women equally (Alison 40). I think that women never thought of the code of ethics as a means to hinder their progress as engineers, in the contrary, current codes of ethics always contain rules and guidelines protecting women.
In conclusion, gender gap in engineering is currently a very debatable topic that till this point no one found an answer to, but in this paper I proposed an original approach to attack this topic. I suggested three factors which were strong economy, modern culture, and opportunity. These factors if present will help to decline the rate of gender discrimination in engineering. Using Qatar’s case study, I showed a real life example of how these factors truly managed to decrease the gender gap in engineering.

Works Cited
Adam, Alison. Fall 2001. “Heroes or Sibyls? Gender and Engineering Ethics” IEEE Technology and Society Magazine pp. 39-46
Carolyn S. Morgan. 1992. “College Students’ Perceptions of Barriers to Women in Science and Engineering” Youth and Society, Vol. 24, No. 2. Pp 228-236 (DOI: 10.1177/0044118X92024002006)
Cuberes, David and Marc Teignier‐Baqué. "Gender Inequality and Economic Growth." World Development Report 2012. 2011.
Ingram, Sandra and Anne Parker. March 2002. “The Influence of Gender on Collaborative Projects in an Engineering Classroom” IEEE Transactions on Personal Communication Vol. 45. No. 1. Pp 7-20
Jenkins, Maura and Robert G. Keim. October 2004. “Gender Trends in Engineering Retention” 34th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Savannah, Georgia. Session S2H-13
Wax, Heather. June 2011. “Blossoming into Engineering: Marimuthu Works to Close the Gender Gap” IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine pp. 29-32