1 Introduction

What is the gender dimension and how relevant is it in the teaching of undergraduate and postgraduate programs? Applied to the university environment, the gender dimension or gender mainstreaming is a comprehensive policy to promote gender equality and diversity in research, teaching and management of universities, all of which are affected by different gender biases. As a cross-cutting strategy, it implies that all policies take into account the characteristics, needs and interests of both women and men, distinguishing the biological aspects (sex) from the social representations (norms, roles, stereotypes) that are culturally and historically constructed from femininity and masculinity (gender) from sexual difference.

A transfer of knowledge in the classrooms that is sensitive to sex and gender has different benefits, both for teachers and students. On the one hand, by deepening the understanding of the needs and behaviors of the population as a whole, partial or biased interpretations are avoided, both theoretically and empirically, that occur when starting from man as universal reference or the diversity of the female subject, and the male subject is not taken into account.

In this way, incorporating the gender dimension improves the teaching quality and social relevance of the knowledge, technologies and innovations produced. On the other hand, providing students with new tools to identify gender stereotypes, norms and social roles contributes to developing their critical spirit and acquiring skills that allow them to avoid gender blindness in their future professional practice. The gender dimension also allows teachers to pay attention to the gender dynamics that take place in the learning environment and to take measures that ensure that the diversity of students is taken into account.

Learning to incorporate the gender dimension in the subjects taught involves nothing more than a reflection on the different elements that make up the teaching-learning process, starting from sex and gender as key analytical variables. After all, incorporating the principle of gender equality is not just a matter of social justice but of the quality of teaching. Sustainable Development Goal 5 (SDG 5) is about Gender Equality and is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations in 2015. The official wording of SDG 5 is "Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls." Providing women and girls with equal access to education, technology, health care, decent work and representation in political and economic decision-making processes will nurture sustainable economies and benefit societies and humanity at large. The targets call for an end to gender discrimination and for empowering women and girls through technology. There is a direct relationship between technology advancement and women empowerment. Even though SDG 5 is a stand-alone goal, other SDGs can only be achieved if the needs of women receive the same attention as the needs of men. For example, access to decent work and regular income for women directly contributes not only to poverty reduction (SDG 1) but also support better education (SDG 4).

This work explores how the gender dimension can be included in the teaching and research of engineering, a framed discipline belonging to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (called with the acronym STEM), an area of ​​knowledge known for having (especially in the West) a low proportion of female students. There is little research and manuals that address gender-specific issues in this area of ​​knowledge and how they could be addressed. The work, therefore, paves the way for further insight into the specific gender bias in engineering and is an essential tool for people who teach and research in the engineering field from a critical spirit.

The following research questions are posed:

  • Is it possible to reach a consensus within the teaching staff on what would be the best way to incorporate the gender dimension in engineering teaching and research?

  • What are the different elements to be considered when implementing the gender dimension in engineering teaching and research?

  • What are the priority actions when implementing the gender dimension in engineering teaching and research?

1.1 Gender blindness and its implications

In Catalonia, women are the majority among university students, but they continue to be a minority in science and technology careers, also called STEM. Within engineering, the distribution of female students follows gender stereotypes (Brawner et al., 2012).

Numerous studies indicate that people’s behavior is determined by implicit or unintentional biases resulting from repeated exposure to widespread cultural stereotypes (Reuben, Sapienza, & Zingales, 2014). These studies describe women as less competitive, but at the same time show their warmth and sympathy compared to men according to stereotypes linked to femininity (Moss-Racusin et al., 2012). Assuming that girls are better at language and boys at science and mathematics by ‘nature’ reinforces sexist stereotypes, which limit equal opportunities and the free development of talent. Although sexism has declined in recent decades, these subtle gender biases still persist even among those who are most egalitarian and are exhibited by both women and men (Carlana, 2018).

The shortage of women in the STEM field (Sáinz, 2017) not only reduces the opportunities they have to work and participate in the advances and decisions of the technological future, but also affects the results of research, innovation and, therefore, to the whole of society. Considerable efforts have been made in recent decades with the intention of increasing the presence of women in technology and engineering education. This renewal is necessary at all levels, but essentially with respect to the curriculum and classroom teaching. It is necessary to recognize that neither the studies nor the teaching methodology are gender neutral, and it is necessary to ensure the interests and needs of women and men, both in the definition and presentation of the contents of the studies and in the management of the classroom, the teaching methodology and evaluation. In addition, the cross-cutting inclusion of gender in subjects and degrees must result in an improvement in the culture and climate experienced within centers and, therefore, in the degree of satisfaction of students.

2 Methodology

The Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – BarcelonaTech (UPC) has been working for many years (since the late 1990s with the TECNOIA project and since 1997 with the creation of the Women’s Program) to incorporate the gender mainstreaming in their regulated studies. Through the III Gender Equality Plan 2016–2020, this university promotes actions aimed at ensuring nondiscrimination, as well as necessary actions in the field of gender policies such as the T'steam (Olmedo et al., 2018), + NoiesTIC, M2m, Time Reform and Glass Ceiling, among others. The UPC is also a partner in a European project H2020 (GEECCO, 2017), which includes the development of equality plans in research institutions (such as universities) and the incorporation of a gender perspective in teaching as one of its main axes. The Gender Dimension in Teaching project (GiD, 2019) is part of these actions. The first phase of the Gender Dimension in Teaching project emerged as a pilot experience that has been developed at the UPC during the 2018/2019 academic year. The aim of this work is not to describe this project, but to pay attention to the conclusions and recommendations derived from the research carried out for this project.

As a proposal to introduce the gender dimension in teaching, the Gender Dimension in Teaching project carried out in  UPC is summarized. The main objective of the Gender Dimension in Teaching project was to start training academic staff to redefine the subjects by incorporating the gender dimension and, in the medium-long term, to be able to implement the gender dimension in general in all the curricula of the UPC. In addition, the aim was to draw up a guide of recommendations that could be used in the future by all the teaching staff of the UPC.

In this project, 41 voluntary teachers from 8 Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees of the UPC participated. The project was carried out using a methodology based on cooperative work through monthly face-to-face sessions from January to June 2019. Within the framework of this project, the participants designed and implemented gender dimension activities in their subjects and special attention was paid to the development of indicators that would allow the evaluation of the project after its completion and the creation of a recommendations’ guide for the introduction of the gender dimension in engineering.

To give teachers the tools they need to introduce the gender dimension in their subjects, four fundamental pillars, according to the Agència per a la Qualitat del Sistema Universitari de Catalunya (AQU, http://www.aqu.cat/) framework document (AQU, 2018), were considered in this project: the contents taught in each subject, the teaching methodology used, the management of the classroom and the student assessment process. See Table 1.

Table 1 Description of the fundamental pillars of the Gender Dimension in Teaching project.
Full size table

2.1 Gender dimension in engineering

Engineering has a strongly multidisciplinary and integrative character; it covers all subareas, from the most technological to the most entrepreneurial. Therefore, one of the main results expected from engineering studies is that students acquire the ability to adapt to different situations and sectors, including technological, economic and management sectors. In addition, the engineering professional often has to lead multidisciplinary teams. To cover all these needs, in the current curriculum of engineering, it is common to find core subjects of projects and business management, but the weight of compulsory training is borne by the subjects where the scientific foundations and the subjects where industrial techniques are studied. Therefore, the more social and humanistic facet of engineering is often not made explicit in the curriculum. As a result, the introduction of the gender dimension in engineering teaching currently depends almost exclusively on the degree of awareness of teachers and how they manage to translate it into the field of the subjects they teach.

2.1.1 Objectives of the subjects / transversal competences

In the absence of gender-specific subjects, the only aspect at the degree level that currently allows the sensitized teacher to accommodate the gender dimension in teaching is transversal competences. To this end, faculty often encounter the competence of teamwork and leadership and competences that include ethical or human rights aspects. UPC makes gender explicit in a cross-cutting competence called Sustainability and social commitment, which includes 5 areas: sustainability, ethical values, gender equality, cooperation and universal accessibility. This explanation of the relevance of gender is essential to promote the introduction of a gender dimension in teaching.

Several researches have considered the potential impact of gender on the implementation and sustainability of the engineering design-based instructional approach as a best practice to enhance STEM teaching. Women, irrespective of their desired science career, were more likely to be interested in addressing issues pertaining to disease, poverty and distribution of wealth and resources and food availability (Verdín et al., 2018).

In 2015, Lina Nilsson said in an article in The New York Times that women are more attracted to engineering if social significance is attributed to it (Nilsson, 2015). Proof of this assertion is the parity inscription found in the newly created Humanitarian Engineering studies in the USA (Bixler et al., 2014). Without radically changing the current curricula of engineering, the proposal the authors propose here to facilitate the incorporation of the gender dimension in teaching is to focus more on the contents and design of subjects toward the usefulness of the object of study, the benefits that society obtains and the environmental consequences. It is about humanizing engineering (Ngo and Chase, 2020). Therefore, the side effect of considering gender equity in teaching is the training of better qualified engineering professionals to be more useful to society.

Currently, however, it is unlikely to find the word gender in the teaching guide, although some allusions to more social concepts do appear. The relationship between technology and society should be present in most of the subjects that make up the engineering curriculum. It would be optimal to have the word "gender" or even "people" appear repeatedly in the teaching guide.

2.1.2 Contents of the subjects

The degree of introduction of the gender dimension in the contents depends on the type of subject to be treated. Given the current curriculum of engineering (including Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees), the authors can define three major blocks of subjects, which are described below.


  • First block of subjects: scientific foundations

    The subjects from the first block are those where scientific foundations are introduced. These are more typical of Bachelor’s Degree level than Master's Degree level. Subjects such as Calculus, Chemistry, Mechanics, Geometry, Differential Equations, Electromagnetism, Statistics, Materials, Thermodynamics or Fluid Mechanics can be included in this block.


  • Second block of subjects: technologies

    The second block of subjects consists of those subjects where a technology is explained. It is in the subjects of this block that the concept of the use of technology and its effect on society comes into play. Here, therefore, gender can be an explicit part of the content when analyzing safety aspects, environmental aspects, ergonomic aspects or types of consumption.


  • Third block of subjects: professional subjects

    The third and final block of subjects are those subjects directly related to working life such as Projects, Organization and Management or Economics and Business. In these subjects, it is possible to achieve a high integration of the gender dimension at the level of content. Obviously, the above recommendations regarding the contextualization of the statements or the analysis of the use of technology, and the effect it has on society are perfectly applicable to the subjects of this third block. But in addition, interpersonal relationships become relevant enough in the content to directly explain gender aspects.

3 Results and discussion

Some useful tools have been developed during the Gender Dimension in Teaching project.

Firstly, a teacher self-assessment questionnaire has been created, which once reviewed and documented, can be made available to the whole community to detect possible improvements in the introduction of the gender dimension in the subjects. This link shows this questionnaire (http://tiny.cc/awkmsz - Catalan language).

In general, it was observed that teachers on the project work team were sensitive to gender issues in the classroom, which is in line with their willingness to participate in this project. But it was found that they did not make this relevance explicit in the classroom, which evidences the social taboo that still exists when it comes to talking about issues around gender inequalities.

Secondly, a questionnaire was also created to analyze the degree of gender awareness of the students. This questionnaire can be applied in the first and last year of the studies in order to be used as an indicator in the analysis of the introduction of the gender dimension in a transversal way in the UPC studies. The final version of this questionnaire (https://tinyurl.com/y6lv3u2j) has involved a whole cooperative process between team members and students.

In relation to the questionnaire to analyze students’ perceptions, the questionnaire was filled by 548 students, which means 55% of the students enrolled in the participating subjects of the project. Among them, 76.4% of the responses were obtained from boys and 23.6% from girls, Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree students, which corresponds to the percentages of enrolled students in UPC. The questions refer to aspects related essentially to the knowledge of the referents of the profession (women and men), communication and language (if they have detected stereotypes of language or sexist gender in the material of the subject or in the oral presentations), with the perceived treatment of teachers and classmates (if they have detected differences with respect to one gender or the other, including assessment), with the degree of comfort or safety to participate in the classroom or go to consultations, with the conception of existing differences between the abilities of women and men to carry out their studies and gender differences in the roles played in group projects.

It has been detected that, in general, there are few referents of the engineering professions, this lack being more pronounced when asked about female referents: 54% know a male referent of their profession, compared to 24% who claims to know some female referent. In addition, it was detected that many of the references correspond to friends, relatives or teachers. Therefore, the engineering professions need to be made more visible in a more appropriate way, with special emphasis on female referents.

Also regarding the student questionnaire, 44% of girls have detected to a greater or lesser extent a different treatment of girls and boys by teachers, compared to 20% of boys. When the authors asked about the treatment of the peers, the proportions remain the same, but the people who answer in the affirmative are not the same, as 60% of the girls and 34% of the boys have detected a different treatment by teachers or peers. There is therefore a certain perception of difference in treatment of girls and boys, this perception being more pronounced in the case of girls.

Half of the girls have detected the use of sexist language by teachers or the use of images with gender stereotypes in the subject material, compared to a quarter of men. This suggests that there is indeed sexism in both language and images, and that, since bias often has a negative impact on girls, it is precisely they who detect it most often.

All of the above explains, in part, why less than half of girls feel comfortable participating in the classroom, compared to almost 70% of boys. The results suggest that more attention be paid to the treatment of girls and boys, that care be taken about the gender perspective in content and how it is conveyed, and that measures be taken to improve girls’ self-esteem and security so that they can participate in the classroom under the same conditions as their classmates.

Finally, a guide of recommendations for the introduction of the gender dimension in engineering teaching was created. In order to obtain a list of useful recommendations, project participants started from a preliminary list, as a hypothesis. The analysis of the subjects of each Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree helped to have a global vision of in which contexts, in what type of subjects, it was more immediate to introduce the gender dimension. With all this experience, project members were able to identify, at the end of the process, which of the actions (already modified) were easy to implement and which required a certain expertise. Based on this information, the recommendations were classified into four levels of difficulty: fundamental actions, easy-to-apply actions, advanced actions and actions for expertise. This link shows the guide: https://tinyurl.com/y5bt4a6n.

The following ones are good practices for introducing the gender dimension in engineering teaching and research. These good practices or recommendations are classified according to the four fundamental pillars considered in this project (Table I) and according to the three different blocks of engineering subjects.

3.1 Contents of the subjects

3.1.1 First block of subjects: scientific foundations

Due to the apparent gender neutrality of the contents of these subjects, the introduction of the gender dimension is often reduced to the introduction of female referents, the care of nonsexist and androcentric language and classroom management. However, the statements in the exercises and their contextualization may include aspects of gender or avoid perpetuating gender stereotypes.

An interesting example is the subject of Statistics, where the methods that are part of the contents of the subject can be put into practice with work in small groups with real data to analyze. These data may come from actual surveys with some social content, for example, the results of the PISA tests, the frequency and nature of trips within the city or the staff hired in some leading companies in the sector. It is essential that the data being analyzed are segregated by sex. It would also be advisable for the students themselves to decide the subject of the data to be treated. In this way, a wide range of topics would be available for analysis in the classroom, even if the methodology used was common. The most relevant aspect of the gender dimension would be the final reflection of the results. This reflection-debate, led by the students who have developed the study, should be shared in the classroom, being the responsibility of the teacher to direct part of the reflection to the still existing effect of gender on behavior or opportunities of the people. With this proposal, it would be possible to introduce the gender dimension in the contents without altering the depth of the scientific concepts that are to be transmitted.

3.1.2 Second block of subjects: technologies

At Bachelor’s Degree level, this block would include subjects such as Machine Theory, Environmental Technology, Thermotechnics, Electrical Machines or Manufacturing Systems. Because they belong to undergraduate studies, the final product design part is not yet very obvious and the end user of the product may be delegated to a second place. However, safety and environmental aspects are relevant. For example, in Thermotechnics, insulation of thermal components is usually designed to prevent both heat loss to the outside and possible burns by workers. Therefore, thermal losses can be related to environmental aspects and safety criteria set by regulations can be discussed. This last point is important, as it is necessary to review how the security criteria have been obtained, what model of person they have been based on and whether diversity should be taken into account. The same analysis can be applied, for example, to Nuclear Technology with the maximum radiation dose. A special case is that of the subject of Environmental Technology and Sustainability, as the contents include analysis of the life system of society and sustainable consumption alternatives. Therefore, the social relevance of the subject is evident and allows reflection on different points of view on issues of gender, cultural habits and roles in society.

At Master’s Degree level, this block includes subjects such as Thermal Machines, Construction and Industrial Architecture, Technological Innovation and Transport, among others. At this level, the social meaning of technology is more evident and needs to be made explicit. For example, the aspects of air pollution by combustion gases is one of the unavoidable issues of Thermal Machines and preferences when choosing one car or another could be related to different environmental sensitivities due to gender. Another example is the contents related to urbanism in the subject of Constructions and Industrial Architecture, where gender aspects are relevant as they relate the habits currently differentiated by gender and the urban needs of a population (Bondi and Rose, 2003; Fenster, 2005). The same goes for the analysis of passenger transport in the subject of Transport. Indeed, it is precisely in the different forms of consumption of a product (transport, component or energy source) where the behavior differentiated by gender, nationality or purchasing level, among others, can be made clear. The subject of Technological Innovation also allows the incorporation of a gender dimension in the phase of identifying the needs of new products and their design.

3.1.3 Third block of subjects: professional subjects

For example, in the subject of Project Management of the Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Technologies at the UPC, gender aspects are inevitable when dealing with human factors in projects, both in terms of human resources and project management. On the one hand, there is a need to highlight the gender biases that still exist in hiring new staff (van den Brink et al., 2010; Fox and Lawless, 2010; Koch et al., 2015). On the other hand, it is necessary to eradicate gender stereotypes about the characteristics and attributes of the people who lead projects, it is necessary to use project director in cases where it is a woman who leads, it is necessary to talk about very positive attributes typically attributed to female gender such as lower competitiveness among team members and greater participatory and democratic leadership (Holly Buttner, 2001). Collaborative work, a sense of responsibility and the empowerment of the entire work team, among others, are also attributes of women’s leadership.

At the Master's level and within this third block of subjects, Business Administration and Organizations, Industrial Organization and Human Resources can be included. Gender issues and biases are one of the key issues to be addressed in the Human Resources subject, but other subjects also include content of social and gender relevance. On the one hand, in Business Administration and Organizations, gender aspects can be included in the contents of strategic management and social responsibility of the company. On the other hand, the aspects of work-life balance have a place in the contents of the organization of working time in the subject of Industrial Organization.

Finally, the authors would like to include here a reflection on the Bachelor and Master Theses. It is already common in engineering projects to include a section on Economic Analysis and a section on Environmental Impact. But these aspects are rarely analyzed from a social point of view, relating the results to the real context of the project: the area, social habits, needs…, in short, the people who live there. In order to incorporate the gender dimension also in the final works of study, it is necessary to include the analysis of this social context of the object of study both in the document and in the oral defense.

3.2 Assessment of the subjects

Learning is not just determined by the curriculum, but by how it is assessed. Some studies highlight that assessment practices in higher education can be enhanced through improvements in the design of assessment. Feedback, participation, empowerment and self-regulation are identified as mediating effects of the quality of assessment tasks on learning (Ibarra-Sáiz et al., 2020).

Given the nature of engineering, the assessment of the different subjects is very varied. Among the most used assessment instruments are open exercises, test-type examinations, projects and oral presentations. Following the guidelines of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), the assessment is summative and includes partial assessments throughout the semester. As an example, the UPC sets a minimum partial assessment of all subjects in the middle of the semester (which is usually done through a test-type exam). In addition, the coordinator of each subject defines the frequency and type of other assessment instruments throughout the semester. Despite a strongly established summative nature, there is no official guideline on how to avoid gender bias throughout the evaluation process (Mengel et al., 2019).

According to the EHEA, assessment should be formative. In other words, it must make it possible to make students aware of the degree to which the learning objectives have been achieved in order to be able to reorient this learning throughout the course. It is an assessment for learning (Rasooli, Zandi, and DeLuca, 2018), that is, a dynamic process with teachers, students and the curriculum as agents. To achieve this assessment, adequate feedback must be provided. It is in this feedback that students can perceive justice in the assessment process. If you do not perceive justice, it will be difficult to adjust learning. According to the classification of Murillo and Hidalgo (2017), there are two conceptions on the part of students of what they consider a fair assessment, one related to equality and the other to equity. Therefore, following this classification, it will be necessary to balance the egalitarian approach that pursues a legal equity in the examinations and their conditions, with previous information of how it will be, of the evaluation criteria, of the number of tests, dates, duration and weight; with the equitable approach pursued by social justice by involving students in the learning process (when, how and why). Indeed, as indicated by Rasooli et al. 2018, the perception of justice by students regarding the application of the power of the teacher (assessment, feedback and its consequences) contributes to empowerment. It is precisely this empowerment of girls that is one of the key factors in the introduction of a gender dimension in teaching.

3.2.1 Gender dimension assessment tools

The evaluation instruments used in engineering can present gender biases both in the contents (statement of a problem, topic of study in a project, etc.) and in the form. In general terms, the effects that these biases can have on the marks obtained by students, on the stereotypes transmitted or on the motivation of students are not taken into account.

In order for the evaluation instruments to incorporate gender into the contents, it is proposed to incorporate the humanization of science in the statements. Therefore, following the recommendations of Cantero Riveros (Cantero Riveros, 2016), it is necessary to include ethical (for the benefit of whom) and pragmatic (why) aspects in the evaluation instruments. This point is easily applicable to the subjects of the third block, those related to working life, but it must also be possible to apply it to the second block of subjects, the most technological ones. In addition, in order to assess relevant learning and, at the same time, accommodate all genders, all assessment instruments need to incorporate, at least in part, contextualized statements. In fact, in Rasooli et al. (2018) show that boys present a better response than girls in decontextualized exams. In contrast, girls have a better response in contextualized examinations with qualitative response.

There is evidence that girls tend to perform worse in many competitive settings than boys, which affects not only the assessment processes but also the teaching methodology and the classroom management (classroom participation, individual or group work, etc.). Inclusive teaching strategies and classroom characteristics have proven to improve students' social participation (Zurbriggen et al., 2021).

Regarding the introduction of the gender dimension in the form of assessment instruments, it should be noted that the response of boys in multiple-choice examinations is better than that of girls (Rasooli et al., 2018). Indeed, several university-level studies (Birenbaum and Feldman, 2011; Pekkarinen, 2015) show that women leave more blank answers in multiple-choice tests, thus obtaining a lower grade than boys. So much so that Riener and Wagner (2017) recommend avoiding penalty and considering only the correct answers. The causes of this differentiated behavior are not yet clear, but everything seems to point to the girls’ low perception of self-efficacy and current risk management (Pekkarinen, 2015). However, these results are not directly applicable in the STEM field, as they have been carried out in subjects in the social or humanistic field. It would be necessary, therefore, to repeat the studies in STEM subjects and confirm, if necessary, the conclusions.

Moreover, based on the assessment methods used, it has been proved that, according to gender, female students improved interpersonal competence more than male students (Remington-Doucette and Musgrove, 2015).

Within the framework of the university, it is not uncommon for subjects to be evaluated exclusively with test examinations in order to minimize the cost of correction and optimize the time, always limited, of the teacher. In view of the results of the cited studies, it is recommended to reduce these practices, although the test may continue to appear occasionally in the evaluation process. It is recommended to expand the range of assessment instruments with open-ended questions in the written examinations, group and individual assignments, oral presentations, laboratory practices, short individual oral exams, etc. This wide range is easily achievable in all subjects regardless of the block to which they belong.

3.2.2 Types of assessment with a gender dimension

Due to the highly multidisciplinary nature of engineering, the high number of students taking the subjects makes it difficult to closely monitor students and provide adequate feedback. Therefore, the formative nature of the assessment is jeopardized.

In order to achieve a quality formative evaluation, it is necessary to rethink the types of evaluation used, and it is necessary to do so from a gender dimension. Types of formative assessment include self-assessment and peer assessment. In self-assessment, it is important that the tool returns a summary with strengths and weaknesses and that the student makes a final overall assessment. It should be noted, however, that good students tend to be undervalued (Dochy et al., 1999). The main advantage of this type of evaluation is its usefulness for working life, which is precisely one of the factors that is intended to be incorporated when introducing the gender dimension. In peer review, it is relevant to note that students of the same gender give better marks to students of the same gender (Rasooli et al., 2018).

Within the typologies of summative assessment, the authors would find external assessment (examinations with all the diversity already mentioned) and co-assessment, which is a peer assessment where the teacher has the last word. According to Dochy et al. (1999) co-assessment improves student-teacher communication, motivation and confidence in student development, i.e., it is a very useful tool for improving girls’ perception of self-efficacy.

It is important to take into account the teacher’s often unconscious bias when evaluating students (Carlana, 2018; Moss-Racusin et al., 2012). In this sense, it is recommended to carry out a systematic control at the end of the course to measure the distribution by sex of the marks and to detect possible biases.

3.3 Classroom management

In engineering classrooms, girls are underrepresented, with a presence that is usually below 30%. Therefore, the classroom is the perfect environment to empower these girls, increase their perception of self-efficacy and eliminate gender stereotypes among students. In fact, classroom management is one of the points where gender stereotypes, both of teachers and students, are most evident. In the classroom, the authors identify three key aspects to work on: (1) inclusive language, (2) participation and (3) roles in group work.

There are many forms of communication in the classroom, including oral communication by the teacher, teaching materials (notes, digital presentations, statements…), student interventions and reports, assignments and exercises presented by students. Care must be taken to use inclusive language in all these forms of communication. In fact, in engineering classrooms, it is still very common to hear phrases like "you, as future engineers…" and talk about professionals in the STEM field always in masculine. However, images of STEM professionals often follow gender stereotypes. It is part of the teacher’s actions to instruct students to use inclusive verbal and visual language to avoid the perpetuation of gender stereotypes in the roles assigned to professionals. STEM teachers are advised to review the basic rules of inclusive language.

The rush to finish the syllabus repeatedly forces students to request a brief and immediate participation in the classroom. Currently and on average, boys cover this need with a faster response, and show less shyness and a more participatory attitude (Orenstein, 1995). Also, when a girl who is intervening in the classroom doubts, a (disruptive) boy often appears who does not wait and responds impulsively for her. Therefore, as gender-sensitive teachers, faculty need to protect all students, especially girls, from these disruptions and encourage the equitable participation of boys and girls. In the case of engineering, as girls are in a numerical minority compared to boys, it is necessary to encourage the participation of girls in the classroom and to strengthen their interventions in order to empower them.

In group work, whether laboratory experiences or projects, roles with gender stereotypes are evident. Therefore, it is key that the team itself detects these roles, rotates them and evidences it to the teacher (Cantero Riveros, 2016; Fabra 2007). It is also advisable for the teacher to explain the sex distribution of the students in the different work groups, without forcing the equitable distribution by sex and allowing segregation. In fact, when gender segregation appears in the definition of groups girls can easily take on roles typically attributed to boys.

3.4 Teaching methodology

Nowadays, the need to combine the participatory master class with other teaching methodologies is more than accepted (Blaszko et al., 2021; Gil-Galvan et al., 2021; Morais et al., 2021). In addition, an increasing proportion of university students have studied Secondary Education with PBL methodology (Problem-Based Learning, Project-Based Learning) due to improvements in motivation and achievement (Méndez Coca, 2015). Therefore, it seems reasonable to take advantage of this student background and reorient it to socially relevant technological applications to introduce the gender dimension (Du and Kolmos, 2009).

According to studies by Hughes, Nzekwe, and Molyneaux (2013), girls’ interest and self-efficacy in STEMs increase when exposed to female STEM roles. Therefore, providing female references in the classroom is one of the priorities. This can be done by the teacher herself, explaining her work as a researcher or as an engineer, but female lecturers can also be invited to the classroom and female references can be added to the historical introduction of new concepts or phenomena. To provide female role models to students, a short biographical review of a prestigious scientist or engineer can be included in the presentation of each topic (Calvo Iglesias, 2017), a resource already used in the teaching of mathematics (Verdejo, 2013).

It is essential to emphasize that, in order to really highlight the relevance of all the activities carried out with students to introduce female referents, it is necessary that: (1) they are duly introduced—with clear objectives and explicit gender relevance—,(2) spaces for discussion in the classroom need to be strengthened to analyze the results, especially for discussing gender stereotypes and (3) they need to be properly evaluated and have some weight in the final mark.

In order for the teacher to be able to capture any indication of student awareness, or modification of stereotypes or self-efficacy in STEM aspects, it is highly recommended to define a pretest and a posttest (García Holgado, 2017). This is the definition of the indicators corresponding to the activity proposed in the classroom. For example, if you want to analyze the contribution of female talent in electromagnetism (to follow the previous example), you will need to ask in the pretest if they know any female referents and ask their name and contribution, and it will also be necessary to ask for male referents. At the end of the activity, it will be necessary to ask it again and analyze the evolution of the students. More open-ended questions such as identifying the possible causes of women’s low visibility may be interesting, especially if the activity includes, at some point, a classroom discussion.

3.5 Specific teaching resources for the incorporation of the gender dimension

It is recommended to use linguistic criteria and strategies for the treatment of gender in oral and written communication.

As for visual communication, it is very important to include images in which women and men appear in order to highlight the presence of both sexes in the performance of functions, work, etc. It is essential to avoid the perpetuation of gender stereotypes in all images.

Another teaching resource for incorporating a gender dimension is to show the applications of engineering in disciplines that are often more attractive to women. In general, students have a high degree of social activism but see engineering as an abstract thing that has no applications in real life. In this sense, problem statements could also be contextualized, making them more attractive to women.

Lack of diversity, and specifically, gender diversity, is one of the key problems that both technological companies and academia are facing these days. An important factor to reverse this problem is increasing the visibility of female role models (Botella et al., 2019). Female referents do not have to be historical women, current research groups can also be analyzed, the percentage of authors in articles in a certain scientific or technical field, leading researchers in research projects, directors in leading companies of a certain sector, etc.

There are many efforts to raise awareness of women in engineering. A good example is the traveling exhibition “(In)visible engineering. Women and technology: past, present and future”, which has been promoted by people from the UPC, the University of Vic-Universitat Central de Catalunya, the Catalan Society of Technology and HP. Recently, Salgueiriño and Rivas Murias (2019) have also presented a list of the most outstanding advances in the field of electromagnetism made by women.

To provide female role models to students, a short biographical review of a prestigious scientist or engineer can be included in the presentation of each topic, a resource already used in the teaching of mathematics (Verdejo, 2013).

Encina Calvo, from the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC), is also continuously highlighting female talent but through activities in the physics and mathematics classroom at the undergraduate level. Activities with undergraduate students include conducting biographies in wiki format (Calvo Iglesias, 2017) or retrieving relevant physics from film or the novel (Iglesias and Rodríguez, 2017).

In addition, the bibliography should include the full names of the authors, not just the initials, to make visible the contribution of women to scientific knowledge. The women who have contributed to these disciplines could also be highlighted.

3.6 Teaching gender sensitive research

In order to contribute to equality in the field of engineering it is necessary to introduce corrective measures such as, for example, courses on gender bias between teaching and research staff (Gvozdanović and Maes, 2018), measures of positive action related to maternity, parity in office, etc. Historically, the production of knowledge and the very vision of the sciences have been linked to men. In general, blindness to the gender dimension, gender blindness in English, is defined as the failure to take into account the different roles and responsibilities assigned to individuals according to gender norms, when developing projects, public policies or programs.

This lack of attention to gender issues helps maintain the status quo, inequalities and biases that come with it. Scientific research, from the biomedical sciences to engineering or the social sciences, has been surprisingly blind, not only to gender issues, but even to such basic issues as differences. Future generations of researchers need to be trained on gender issues in their respective disciplines, and on gender-sensitive research.

All this indicates that gender training is necessary, both to tutor a Bachelor, Master or Doctoral Thesis and to develop it and, in the same way that courses are held to improve writing, they should also teachpre—test to integrate the gender dimension in these works. Along these lines, the UPC is promoting courses such as "Writing projects and class materials with inclusive and non-androcentric language," "Applying the gender dimension to research," etc. These courses are aimed at teachers and administrative and service staff, and some of them already have more than one edition. The final study papers (Bachelor / Master /Doctoral Theses) should be written in nonsexist language and the bibliography should include the full names of the authors, not just the initial ones, for to make visible the contribution of women to scientific knowledge. The women who have contributed to these disciplines could also be highlighted.

One way to incorporate gender in a systematic and cross-cutting way in these works would be to include a new section on gender or a more general section on sustainability that includes as far as possible aspects of gender. Equity in the members of the court and the evaluation criteria should also be analyzed.

On the subject, the more social and humanistic facet of engineering should be made explicit in the research. Sustainability, ethical values, gender equality, cooperation and universal accessibility; this explication of the relevance of gender is fundamental to drive the introduction of gender dimension also in research. To achieve this, it is necessary to orient the contents and design of the work proposals (Bachelor, Master or Doctoral Theses) toward the usefulness of the object of study, the benefits that society obtains and the consequences. Environmental is not focus solely on the design and analysis of the object of study. In short, it is about humanizing engineering.

In addition to providing engineering research with social relevance, part of the research with a gender dimension can be done by analyzing STEMs from a gender dimension, in other words, doing research on topics of gender. There is already work on this area of ​​research, but the range of possibilities is wide. It is precisely by highlighting the differences that exist according to gender (collection of data disaggregated by sex and sensitive to gender) that faculty will be more aware of the problem (slowing down the progression of a woman's career compared to that of a man, women's propensity to leave the STEM career, women do not have the same opportunities for professional promotion as their male colleagues…) and faculty will have more tools to be able to change this trend.

Horizontal segregation affecting fields of study, essentially masculine references in place in various areas, the reproduction of gender stereotypes through the use of certain examples or a division of tasks according to traditional gender patterns, result in sometimes gender-biased interaction contexts. Questioning the references of the discipline, encouraging a balanced participation of students and their self-esteem or involving them in the choice of modes of interaction, are among the options to mitigate these biases.

So-called STEMs are sometimes approached as gender neutral but there are some questions that is recommended to ask before starting a research, as the contents of a research paper are likely to link gender biases (see Table 2).

Table 2 Questions and contents of a research paper regarding gender dimension
Full size table

4 Research limitations

Like any teaching improvement process, the results are obtained with an iterative process of design, application, evaluation and improvement. At the teaching level, since each participating teacher must continue to introduce the gender dimension in their subject, incorporating more actions and improving their application. At the institutional level, to repeat the process carried out in this project with other teachers and thus extend the network of experts and promote institutional change.

The duration of this project, which coincides with the spring semester of 2019, has made it possible to carry out the strategies proposed throughout the course. It should also be mentioned that the recommendations’ guide for the introduction of the gender dimension in engineering is continually evolving. This first version was carried out by the team behind this project with the suggestions and comments of all the participating members, but if the process is repeated, it can evolve to incorporate new actions and recommendations.

5 Conclusions

This work explores how gender mainstreaming can be included in the teaching and research of engineering, an area of ​​knowledge famous for having a low proportion of female students. There is little research and manuals that address gender-specific issues in this area of ​​knowledge and how they could be addressed. During the 2018/2019 academic year, a pilot project on gender mainstreaming was carried out at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – BarcelonaTech (UPC) as part of these actions.

A teacher self-assessment tool has been created as a starting point for cooperative work. Once reviewed and documented, it is available to the whole university community to detect possible improvements in the introduction of the gender dimension in the subjects. A questionnaire has also been designed for the analysis of the degree of gender issues awareness of students. This questionnaire can be applied in the first and last year of studies as an indicator in the analysis of the introduction of the gender dimension in a transversal way in higher education studies. Also within the framework of this project, a recommendations’ guide for the incorporation of the gender dimension in engineering teaching has been developed. This guide responds to a social and also normative need. On the one hand, engineering aims to respond to the needs of society, and therefore to the needs of women and men. To do so, they need to be nurtured equally by the vision and values of both genders. On the other hand, the Spanish Law 17/2015, of 21st July, on the effective equality of women and men of Catalonia has paved the way for the General Framework for the Incorporation of the Gender Dimension in Higher Education of the AQU. In this new framework, Catalan universities must take measures for the transversal incorporation of the gender dimension in all higher education.

The recommendations proposed in this work emerge from the research carried out for this project. This research project has highlighted the possibility of reaching a consensus on most actions to be implemented to achieve a gender dimension. The most immediate and gender-specific actions in which there is a greater consensus include the introduction of female referents, the revision of teaching material in order to eliminate stereotypes in images or sentences and the revision of the language used by everyone in the classroom. In addition, in the analysis of the questionnaire to the students, evidence was obtained of the need to apply these actions.

In addition, a network of contacts between teachers has been created for future collaborations and the knowledge of UPC staff in the introduction of the gender dimension in engineering teaching is being substantially expanded. This work paves the way for further insight into the specific gender bias in engineering and is an essential tool for people involved in teaching and research in the engineering field from a critical spirit.