Abstract:
Women in the engineering field are noted to face a ‘leaking pipe’, where many ambitious, driven female engineering students and professionals decide to leave the sector at a certain point in their lifetime. As we move higher in the engineering track, we see that the level of female participation decreases— i.e. from university to junior engineering positions, from junior engineering to middle management positions, from middle management to senior positions… etc.

This study aims to identify firstly the state of Bahraini female engineers in the country: their level of participation, achievement, and progression along each step of the engineering track. Secondly, the study aims to identify the key factors which affect Bahraini female engineers and examine how these factors affect their retention and progression within the field. The study tested 8 factors: Personal Beliefs, University/Education Experience, Culture, Family Responsibilities, Work Environment, HR Policies, Recruitment of Female Engineers, and Promotional Opportunities.

The study assesses the impact of the identified factors by measuring how they correlate with the level of retention of women in the engineering field, throughout different stations of the engineering track. The population for this study has been defined as all Bahraini female engineers working in the engineering sector in Bahrain. The research paper constitutes as an inferential study. Data was collected through questionnaires, and statistical results were calculated through statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS).

Main results show that three factors, in particular, examined a significant correlation with the rate of retention of Bahraini women in the engineering sector, which are Personal Beliefs, Promotional opportunities, and Culture. Finally, considering study findings, recommendations are presented on how to mitigate challenges faced by female engineers and boost retention rates based on the expected level of impact and suitability with the Bahraini market and culture.