Doing Engineering

Joyce Tang

doi:10.5771/9780742577305

Summary

The first to systematically compare Caucasians, African Americans, and Asian Americans in engineering, this study of the career attainment and mobility of engineers in the United States tells how these three groups fare in the American engineering labor market and what they can look forward to in the future. The numbers of black and Asian engineers recently have grown at a much faster rate than the number of Caucasian engineers. With a projected steady increase in engineering jobs and demographic shifts, this trend should continue. Yet, recent writings on the engineering profession have said little about career mobility beyond graduation. This book identifies and explores key issues determining whether minorities in the US will attain occupational equality with their Caucasian counterparts. Highlighting implications for theory, policy making, and the future of the profession, Doing Engineering offers important insights into labor, race and ethnicity that will be of interest to anyone studying stratification in a wide range of professional occupations.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2000
ISBN-Print: 978-0-8476-9465-5
ISBN-Online: 978-0-7425-7730-5
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 243
Product type: Book Titles

1. Table of Contents No access
2. Figures and Tables No access
3. Preface No access
1. What is Engineering? No access
2. The World according to Engineers No access
3. The Making of a Profession No access
4. Engineering in Modem Times No access
5. Engineers in the Shadow No access
1. Why so Few Women in Engineering? No access
2. Who is Filling the Gap? No access
3. Recent Trends in Participation No access
4. An Increasingly Diverse Engineering Workforce? No access
5. Coming to America No access
6. Why so Few Blacks but so Many Asians in Engineering? No access
7. A Statistical Profile No access
1. Universalism versus Particularism No access
2. Human Capital No access
3. Labor Market Discrimination No access
4. Assimilation No access
5. Structuralism No access
6. Summary No access
1. Employment Trends No access
2. Employment Statuses No access
3. Employment and Utilization No access
4. Degree and Pattern of Utilization No access
1. Professionalization of American Engineers No access
2. Identity and Commitment No access
3. Why Study Professional Identity and Professional Commitment? No access
4. Measuring Professional Commitment No access
5. The Ideology of Professionalism No access
6. The Ideology of Management No access
7. Independent Profession No access
8. Heterogeneity No access
9. Do Engineers have a Professional Identity? No access
10. Implications No access
1. Why Study Management in Engineering? No access
2. Management versus Technical Work No access
3. Why do People want to Move from Engineering to Management? No access
4. Why Engineers don't want to be Managers? No access
5. Trusted Worker No access
6. Work Segregation No access
7. Affirmative Action No access
8. Reverse Discrimination/Diversity No access
9. Management No access
10. Glorified Managers No access
11. Disillusioned Engineers No access
12. R&D Technical Work No access
13. Implications No access
1. What is Track Switching? No access
2. What is Backtracking? No access
3. Why some Engineers Switch Track while Others don't? No access
4. Why do Engineers Backtrack? No access
5. Engineering as a "Hybrid" Career No access
6. Advancement versus Mobility No access
7. Power versus Expertise No access
8. Tracking Switching No access
9. Backtracking No access
10. Implications No access
1. Summary and Discussions No access
2. Policy Making No access
3. Theoretical Development No access
4. Research on Stratification and Mobility No access
5. Engineers and Engineering No access
6. Conclusion No access
Appendix: Methodological Issues No access Pages 211 - 214
Bibliography No access Pages 215 - 232
Index No access Pages 233 - 242
About the Author No access Pages 243 - 243