A comparative study on the support in engineering courses: a case study in Brazil and Spain

The gender gap in engineering careers is a well-known problem. Despite several studies showing the under-representation of women in STEM fields, few explore the factors that influence before entering and during the engineering studies, including the practices in the labor market. The support from the social context, such as family, friends, or teachers, can influence the attraction rates and dropout rates of the engineering studies. This paper presents a survey to analyze the gender and culture perceptions of supports in engineering studies, involving 208 female and male undergraduate students of engineering courses from Spain and Brazil. Some findings of this study show that the sample average (32.69%) followed the standard ratio of around 30% of women in STEM careers. Almost 70% of the female students decided to enroll in an engineering career during high school or vocational training courses. In Spain, the support of families and friends is higher than Brazil, but the support received from their academic institutions and teachers were low in both countries, regardless of gender. In the labor market, the male workers in Spain seem to be less supported than their female colleagues.