Applying a Gender Lens to the Predictors of High-tech Career Intentions among Engineering Students in Bangladesh

Abstract

This paper explores the extent to which perceived job attributes, perceived male dominance in the high-tech sector, and perceptions of the media’s gendered representation of high-tech might influence students’ intentions to pursue a career in the high-tech sector. A survey was conducted with 209 female and 640 male engineering undergraduate students in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The results suggested that both female and male students were attracted to high-tech when they viewed it as a challenging career.  Gender role stereotypes also, however, influenced the career intentions of both women and men.  Although they are influenced by different types of gendered norms – women by attitudes toward the suitability of high-tech careers for women and men by male media images of high-tech – the gendering of high-tech work influenced both women and men. The results contradict previous findings that female students perceive high-tech work as boring, uncool, and nerdy but support previous findings on the negative effect of gender stereotyping on female students’ interest in pursuing a high-tech related career