With the growing demands for additional and diverse engineers, the atypical gender balance experienced by Engineers Without Borders-USA (EWB-USA) is a unique engineering education research setting. Exploring the gender balance of this organization could assist the field's efforts in better recruiting and retaining female engineers. In this work-in-progress study, a social cognitive career theory framework is used to explore the engineering outcome expectations of engineers both involved and not involved with the organization. Qualitative methods were used to gather outcome expectations of male, female, professional, and student engineers, and initial case-based and thematic coding was performed. Preliminary results suggest that EWB-USA members have unique engineering outcome expectations that are often influenced by their organizational involvement. This study may identify ways in which the larger engineering field can replicate similar alternative expectations, particularly to aid the recruitment and retention of a more gender balanced engineering population.
Litchfield, K. and Javernick-Will, A. (2013). “A New Vision: Changed Engineering Outcome Expectations through EWB-USA." Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Frontiers in Education Conference. Oklahmoa City, OK. doi: 10.1109/FIE.2013.6685119