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Some examples of action to improve Gender balance in the Department of Electrical and Communications Engineering at Helsinki University of Technology
Pirjo Putila and Mari Knuuttila
Department of Electrical and Communications Engineering, Helsinki University of Technology,

Abstract

TiNA project started at Helsinki University of Technology in 2001. Department of Electrical and Communications Engineering is the pilot of the project. Until summer 2002 about 300 of all about 5000 Graduate Engineers in the department were women. About 10 % of all students are women, and only 1 in 54 professors is a woman. So there is a lot of work to do to improve gender balance in the department. TiNA is a national project supported by European Social Fund (ESF) and the State Provincial Office of Southern Finland.

The goal of TiNA project is to promote female-friendly education where women's preferences (as far as they are known) are taken into account. Effort is made on broadening the curriculum content, the methods of learning and teaching and to personal contacts between students, teachers and researches. This means for example to encourage more co-operative learning and to develop a tutorial system to support and guide new students.

We have tried discussion groups and seminars for women. The possibility to meet and discuss with other women in the same field seems to be important for women studying and working in a masculine environment like the Department of Electrical and Communications Engineering. We are also developing a mentoring system where female engineers, godmothers, give support and guidance to students. In this way also very important role models are found. By all this action networks between female students, researchers and engineers are created.

Spring 2001 we made an inquiry among the first year students about how they felt their first year at the university and specially the tutoring of the department. One significant result concerning TiNA -project was that there is a difference in career choice firmness between female and male students. Young women studying at the department of Electrical and Communications Engineering are not as sure as men that they study at the right field. One purpose of the project is to support the professional identity of women along the university years. Our aim is to change little by little the masculine culture of the department. This means also to create action which interest specially women. One example is the practical course, where those who never have done any technical work by themselves (for example soldering) can practice it.

One purpose of the project is to obtain and transfer information about gender and technology education. The method is to publish and link articles and other projects in the website of our project (http://tina.tkk.fi/). We also introduce some female students and engineers trying to offer positive role models to young women.