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Griffith H, Griffith A. Increasing gender diversity amongst intending engineering majors using social networks: A work in progress. 2016;203-206doi: 10.1109/ISECon.2016.7457533.
Griffith, H., & Griffith, A. (2016). Increasing gender diversity amongst intending engineering majors using social networks: A work in progress. 203-206. https://doi.org/10.1109/ISECon.2016.7457533
Griffith, H, and Griffith, A. "Increasing gender diversity amongst intending engineering majors using social networks: A work in progress." vol. (2016): 203-206. doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/ISECon.2016.7457533
Griffith H, Griffith A. Increasing gender diversity amongst intending engineering majors using social networks: A work in progress. 2016;203-206. doi: 10.1109/ISECon.2016.7457533. UIID-AD: 4192.
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2016;203-206. doi: 10.1109/ISECon.2016.7457533.

Increasing gender diversity amongst intending engineering majors using social networks: A work in progress.

H Griffith, A Griffith

UIID-AD: 4192 DOI: 10.1109/ISECon.2016.7457533

Abstract

Interventions aimed at increasing gender diversity within the engineering workforce have proven insufficient in aggregate to yield transformative outcomes on a national scale. This is in contrast with results disseminated from numerous discrete intervention efforts implemented across the K-16 continuum, which have proven effective in enhancing awareness and increasing motivation for participation in STEM fields amongst participating females. One possible explanation for this apparent paradox is that the success of individual disjoint interventions is attenuated in time by a lack of contextual and temporal continuity between adjacent efforts. While such a proposed mechanism may be addressed by expanding resource allocations in order to increase the magnitude of such offerings or to improve coordination between them through a centralized administrative framework, appropriately constructed virtual social networks may offer an effective low-cost alternative for addressing this deficiency. Namely, by providing virtual access to an array of potential female colleagues at various stages of the educational and professional pathway, such networks may help support potential STEM enrollees between exposures to in-person interventions, thus increasing the efficacy of the aggregate intervention system. Our current work seeks to identify the feasibility of such an approach by examining the behaviors of targeted females at various stages of the educational and professional spectrum as it relates to their utilization of social networks. In particular, we seek to identify the feasibility of supporting such interactions through participants' existing social networking activities. In addition, we seek to explore potential objections to participation which may arise on the basis of perceived privacy concerns. © 2016 IEEE.

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