De mère en fille
Donatille Mujawamariya, Professor of Education, Michelle Boucher, PhD student in Education, and Catherine Mavriplis
This project is looking at the influence of mothers on daughters’ decisions to enter STEM fields. Stay tuned for some interesting narratives and analysis of the sample. This project is carried out in French only at this time.
Advancing Women’s Career within Canada’s Aerospace Industry
Victoria Osten Ph.D. student in Sociology with Dr. Ann Denis, Emeritus Professor, Sociology and Dr. Catherine Mavriplis
While women are doing well in their first decade as engineers, they are less likely than men to be in high-status technical positions or to be moving into management mid-career. The purpose of this study is to examine the mid-career leadership development of women engineers in Canada’s aerospace industry. This study asks: why do women, so full of talent and professional competence, fail or seem reluctant to take necessary steps to secure their career advancement? To what extent women’s own choices are influenced by existing structural, ideological and cultural constraints in society? Do women just not have “what it takes” to be leaders in their profession? We would like to pursue these questions to understand reasons behind women’s under-representation inupper levels of the profession and create a plan to encourage career advancement.
Mapping Women in IT in Canada
In association with WIGSAT and Ann Holmes (Ann Holmes & Associates), Nisita Tappata, UOttawa Computer Science Master’s degree alumna, Mina Rafi Nazari, PhD Student in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Catherine Mavriplis.
This project involves compiling a database of organizations promoting women in IT in Canada as well as mapping women in the IT industry by geography, sector and career level.
Negotiation Skills Training for Women in Science and Engineering
Jerie Shaw, MA student in Communication studies suggest that differences between male and female communication styles can slow the progress of women’s career advancement in male-dominated fields such as science and engineering (Carli, 2006). Communication differences manifest starkly in negotiations. The proposed thesis intends to analyse the effectiveness of negotiation skills training programs in alleviating barriers to advancement in male-dominated fields. A negotiation skills training program for early- to mid- career female professionals has been implemented and will be evaluated for both short- and long-term outcomes and impacts in terms of negotiation effectiveness.
Gender in Engineering and Computer Science
Jennifer Thivierge, PhD Student in history at the University of Ottawa with Ruby Heap and Catherine Mavriplis
This project will examine the social phenomena of gender, science and technology are interrelated and how they have historically shaped each other in dynamic and complex ways. It will discuss the role of science and technology on the shaping of society, particularly in terms of gendering jobs and exclusion of women, gender issues in the workplace, and the impact of science and technology on women’s lives. The focus will be on engineering and computer science to understand how these particular professions have been involved in crafting our understanding of men and women, maleness and femaleness, and masculinity and femininity.
Mapping Women in Canada’s Biotech/Pharmaceutical Industry
Michelle Sybring, UOttawa B. Eng. Biomedical – Mechanical alumna, and Catherine Mavriplis
This project aims to gather information regarding women holding technical positions in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. We are striving to map out their distribution in the industry by geography, sector and career level. We are also seeking information regarding professional societies whose mandate is to promote and support women working in these industries. Overall, the goal of this research is to map out the distribution of women throughout these industries and analyze the career paths of women holding technical positions in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries for comparison with women in other technical sectors. We hope that this research will help to identify ways to increase the number of women holding technical positions in these sectors in the future.
