‘We Treat Everyone Equally, but…’—Gendered Attitudes and Perceptions in STEM

Gender segregation, both horizontal and vertical, in the fields of technology and engineering, remains persistent. In many countries, the percentage of women studying STEM in higher education is around 20%, and this segregation continues in working life as differences in career paths, salaries, jobs, and positions. To facilitate a more equitable gender balance, particularly in higher education technology-oriented fields, it is important to expand our knowledge and awareness of the mechanisms that perpetuate gender segregation, such as gender-related attitudes, stereotypes, and cultural beliefs. This chapter discusses gender-related topics in STEM education and in technology-oriented careers based on two types of data collected during 2020–2021. Interview data were collected through 14 thematic semi-structured interviews with academic staff members in engineering higher education. Survey data were collected from 128 answers of female alumni who had graduated in technological fields from Tampere University or the former Tampere University of Technology. Our findings reveal that gender equality issues are not acknowledged in engineering higher education. Most of the interviewed staff members felt that their guidance practices were gender-neutral and that gender was an irrelevant factor in guidance. At the same time, they identified some gendered patterns in students’ performance and orientation, stereotypical characteristics associated with female and male students, and different expectations of technical skills, which corresponded with the alumni experiences of gender-differentiated treatment. The paper concludes by providing suggestions and further directions to support gender-aware approaches in technology education.