PREDICTORS OF CAREER CHOICE OF WOMEN IN NONTRADITIONAL AREAS

Ian I. Llenares
Technological Institute of the Philippines QC

Why study Career Choice of Women in Engineering and Architecture?

Increasing number of
women taking Engineering and Architecture Productivity in Academic work Career Pathing

Career choice in Engineering and Architecture is an issue of:

1. GWA in high school and type of high school graduated from 2. Parents educational attainment and occupation. 3. Combined Family Monthly income 4. Level of Self-Awareness 5. Level of Work and Family Orientation

These issues are the problems

Hypothesis
There is significant relationship between the predictors of career choice of women and nontraditional areas.

SCOPE AND DELIMITATION

Only the graduating women in selected engineering
program were used in the study namely; civil engineering, mechanical engineering, marine engineering, electrical engineering and architecture. 20 % or 34 respondents out of150 population was used in the study. The variables in the study were also delimited in level of Self-Awareness, level of Work and Family Orientation, Parents educational attainment and occupation, GWA in high school and Combined Family Monthly income

 Only the Constructed Questionnaire were used

in the study. The questionnaire consists of 35 items and takes approximately 10 to 15 minutes to answer.

Independent Variables
Person-Related GWA in HS Type of high school graduated from Family-Related Family monthly income Parents educational attainment Parents occupation Self-Awareness Interest Values Skills Attitude Opportunities for employment Work and Family Orientation

Dependent Variables
Nontraditional Areas Technical (ARCH, CE, EE, MAR-E, ME)

Figure 1. Illustrates the framework of the study

METHOD
Descriptive Research The descriptive type of research describes, What

is. It includes descriptive recording, analysis and interpretation of a condition that presently exists. It often involves comparison or contrast and attempt to discover cause and effect relationship that is present between existing manipulated variables.

Participants
The total population of female students
enrolled at the Technological Institute of the Philippines-Quezon City for the second semester of school year 2010-2011 totaled to 150 and there were 20 % or 34 respondents used in the study.

Renew yourself inwardly That you may know what is good, acceptable and perfect Romans 12

Research Instrument
Constructed Career Choice of Women
Questionnaire was used to gather basic information such as course, general weighted average in high school, family combined monthly income and parents educational attainment.

It also used to assess the importance of work and

family orientation, and self-awareness in terms of interest, values, attitude, skills, and opportunities for employment.

Research Instrument
The Research Director examined the content of the
questionnaire before it was administered.

The constructed questionnaire was administered

first to 34 graduating women in engineering and architecture before floating it to the 34 identify respondents.

Procedure
1. A request letter was prepared and address to
the VPAA of TIP 2. Participants are randomly selected and only the graduating students of Mechanical, Electrical, Civil and Marine Engineering programs were covered in the study 3. The questionnaires were personally administered to the identified 34 respondents and informed them about the confidentiality of information.

Statistical Treatment
To achieve the objectives of the study the following statistical treatment were used;

Frequency distribution Mean Multiple regression SPSS Version 18

RESULTS
1. Majority of the respondents GWA belongs to 85.00
and mostly are graduates from private school 2. Mostly of their parents are college graduates and majority of their occupations are professionals like teachers, managers, engineer, and administrative staff. 3. Majority of their combined family monthly income belongs to P30,000 P39,999

Level of Work and Family Orientation

Table 1 Mean and Interpretation of Work and Family Orientation
Mean Work and Family Orientation
Legend: 4.50-5.00 3.50-4.49 2.50-3.49 1.50-2.49 1.00-1.49 INTERPRETATION Strongly agree Agree Moderately agree Slightly disagree Not agree

Interpretation

4.11 Agree

Result shows that respondents agreed that work

and family orientation (X=4.11) affects them in making career decision. They believed that when they get married they have a happy family life and a satisfying relationship with their colleagues in the job.

Level of Self-Awareness
Table 2 Mean and Interpretation of Self-Awareness
Mean 2.82 2.98 3.55 3.13 3.12 Total
Legend: 3.50-4.00 2.50-3.49 1.50-2.49 1.00 1.49 INTERPRETATION Very Important Important Least Important Unimportant

Interpretation Important Important Very Important Important Important Important

Interest Values Opportunities for employment Attitude Skills

3.12

Level of Self-Awareness
Findings in the study showed that the
students perceived interest, values, attitude and skills as important and opportunities for employment as very important in choosing their career.

Predictors of Career Choice

Table 3 Predictors of Career Choice
Unstandardized Coefficients B 13.150 -1.453 2.576 -.306 .005 .118 -.012 -.814 .246 -2.521 .208 -1.986 .777 -.693 Standardized Coefficients Beta -.584 .738 -.445 .008 .214 -.034 -.385 .144 -.834 .072 -.663 .227 -.241

Model (Constant) Type of high school Attitude Combined family monthly income Father educational attainment Mother educational attainment GWA Father Occupation Mother Occupation Interest Values Opportunities Skills Family and work Orientation

Sig. .013 .000 .005 .093 .954 .343 .854 .286 .443 .024 0.10 0.10 .465 .197

Verbal Interpretation

Significant Significant
Not significant

Not significant

Not significant Not significant

Not significant Not significant Not significant Not significant Not significant Not significant Not significant

Predictors of Career Choice

Evidence showed that only type of
high school graduated from (.000) and attitude (.005) were the predictors of career choice of women in Engineering and Architecture.

Type of High School Graduated from as Predictors

The more the female students graduated from
private school the more they want to take courses dominated by men this means that the school administrators and teachers encourage them to pursue their degree in engineering and architectural program. The school maximizes and recognizes the potentials of the students taking engineering and architectural courses.

Type of High School Graduated from as Predictors

This supports the statement of Eli Ginzberg,
developmental theory that educational process such as proper educational preparation assists the student in selecting desired course Villar (2009). Green (1984) stated that school should exert effort in assessing the capacity, ability and interest of every individual student under its supervision so that it could provide them necessary and appropriate information and training.

Type of High School Graduated from as Predictors Evetts (1993) on her study entitled

Women in Engineering: educational concomitants of a non-traditional career choice revealed that women perceived educational as important and has influences on ones career choice

Attitude as predictors
The female students curiosity about new things,
their being pragmatic in making decisions and aggressiveness in discovering new things interest them to pursue their career in courses dominated by men. Findings agreed that the students attitude fall on realistic and investigative type of personality. Their attitude is a portion of their personality. According to John Holland people fall in this category may have possibility to work on career dominated by men Villar (2009).

Model 1

.933a

R Square .871

Adjusted R Square .788

Std. Error of the Estimate .58112

The adjusted r square is 78.8 percent of the variation in the outcome is determined by the predictor variable.

Conclusion
Only 2 out of 13 variables (type of high school
graduated from, combined family monthly income, father and mother educational attainment, general weighted average in high school, father and mother occupations, interest, attitude, values, opportunities for employment, skills and work and family orientation) are predictors of career choice of women in nontraditional areas. This means that the hypothesis posited in the study are partially confirmed.

Recommendations
1. This study suggested that high school institution
may develop a career pathing program for female students who want to pursue their career in engineering and architecture. 2. They may also link with agencies and organization like Jobstreet, JobsDB and People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP), Psychological Association of the Philippines (PAP) and Philippine Guidance and Counseling Association (PGCA) who are experts in providing career information and counseling.

References

Assessing Women in Engineering (AWE) Project 2005. Career Development. AWE Research Overviews http://www.aweonline.org. Betz, N. (2002). Explicating an ecological approach to the career development of women. The Career Development Quarterly, 50, 335-338. Belenky, M. F., Clenchy, B., Goldberger, N., & Tarule, J. (1996). Women's Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice, and Mind. New York: Basic Books. Block, Deborah P. (1990) Career Horizons NTC Publishing Home Lincolnwood, Illinois, USA. Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

References

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References

Evetts, J. (1994). Career and motherhood in engineering: cultural dilemmas and individualistic solutions. Journal of Gender Studies, 3(2), 177-188. Farmer, H. S. (Ed.). (1997). Diversity and women's career development: from adolescence to adulthood. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Graham, L. P. (1997). Profiles of Persistence: A Qualitative Study of Undergraduate Women in Engineering. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg. Green, Harry A. (1984) Measurement and Education in Secondary Schools: New York Longham Green and co. Gizberg, El and Sol Ginzberg. (1967) Occupational Choice: An Approach in a Theory. New York: Columbia University Press. Hansen, L. S., Walker, J. & Flom, B. (1995). Growing Smart: What's Working for Girls in School. Washington D.C.: The Foundation. Holland, J. L. (1997). Making vocational choices: a theory of vocational personalities and work environments. Odessa: FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.

References

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