Women and Men in Engineering Courses: a brief analysis of the performance between genders in Vector Systems Nilene Janini de O. Seixas, Maria Eduarda Santos Pouza, Marcos Antonio Santos de Jesus

Abstract

 It is experienced on the day in the classroom of engineering courses focused on the area of ​​exact sciences that the number of female students is reduced, when compared to the number of male students. It is known that this situation has been evident for decades or we can even trace the origin of universities around the world. A few centuries ago, most women attended higher schools. However, in today's society everything has changed, especially in Brazil and other countries where democracy is full and established. Women, like men, have the same legal right and incentive to attend any school or higher education course. The present study was developed with the main objective of comparing the number of students in the classroom in relation to gender and performance in vector systems. Performance was obtained through each person’s final grade in the subject. The sample used 210 students, of which 155 (73.8%) were male and 55 (26.2%) were female. All students were regularly enrolled in the vector systems course. The data was collected during the years 2023 and 2024, at the Santa Cecília University – UNISANTA, located in the city of Santos – São Paulo. There was no experimental manipulation or differentiated treatment for groups of subjects. The study set out to present factors and analyze differences between them. From a cognitive point of view, he accepted the subjects exactly as they were. An explanatory and non-experimental quantitative model was followed, with quantitative analysis of the variables. α=0.05 (significance level) was established. Regarding the number of students, when comparing the male and female genders, it was proven that there was a statistically significant difference, p<0.05. Although the average performance of women in vector systems was slightly higher than that of men, when the average difference was compared, it was found that the difference was not statistically significant (p>0.05).