The Motivations, Career Decisions, and Decision-Making Processes of Female Students Studying the Professional Doctorate in Engineering

Women in engineering represent a significant group within the profession, acrossa range of fields, including oil, mechanical engineering, and biomedicalengineering. However, only a few female engineers and engineering studentsdecided to enter and stay in the engineering field due to social stigma andstereotypes toward women in engineering. The purpose of this study is tounderstand and investigate the motivations, career decisions, and decision-makingprocesses of a group of female engineers and Doctorate in Engineering (DEng)engineering students in the American university environment. Based on the socialcognitive career and motivation theory, the research study wants to understand themotivations, career decisions, and decision-making processes of a group of DEngfemale students in the United States. The case study design with semi-structuredinterviews, focus group activities, and member-checking interviews were employedto collect data from ten participants. The results indicated that career development,upgrade the current practice and management in engineering, and gender is not anissue for women in engineering were categorised as the themes. The results of thisstudy outlined the qualitative comments about the learning motivations of femaleDEng and the reasons why DEng would be their selection instead of the traditionalPhD in Engineering programme. The results also filled the gaps in the areas offemale engineering students and professionals’ motivations, career decisions, anddecision-making processes after they completed the Professional Doctorateprogramme