Gender Differences in Organizational Commitment among Early Career Engineers in Canada

Abstract

To assess a possible explanation for persistent gender inequalities in engineering, this study examines gender differences in recent Bachelor of Engineering graduates’ intention to look for another engineering job three years after graduation. Applying organizational commitment theories, we examined gender differences in job and family characteristics, and feelings of these graduates towards their jobs to understand what underlying factors make these graduates look for a job with another employer. Based on logistic regression analyses of the National Graduates Survey 2013 (Statistics Canada, 2013), we found no statistically significant gender differences in intentions to leave. This indicates that job commitment is unlikely to be the reason for women’s underrepresentation in the occupation. However, women are more likely to look for a job with another employer when they feel overqualified for the work they are doing, are supervising someone at a job, are a visible minority, or when they have children. Moreover, significantly more visible minority men than white men are looking for a new job. These results have implications for the existing retention initiatives for women and visible minority engineers in Canada