Comparing Empathy Between Male and Female Undergraduate Engineering Students

This multiphase quantitative study explores variation in how male and female engineering students empathize. Phases 1 and 2 compare male and female engineering student responses to two empathy constructs: perspective-taking and empathic concern. Phase 3 explores differences based on post-course survey reflections representing how male versus female first-year engineering students perceived using empathy in their curricular design projects. Students were from a biomedical engineering program in a large urban university in the USA (Phase 1) and first-year engineering students at a large rural university in the USA (Phases 2 and 3). Results show that female engineering students reported greater empathic concern than male students. First-year engineering female students also reported greater perspective-taking tendencies. First-year female engineering students reported empathizing during engineering design projects to a greater extent than male peers, including both cognitive and affective empathy types. Taken together, findings suggest there is a gendered nature of empathy in engineering, and thus it is important for engineering instructors to consider variation between male and female students' use of empathy when seeking to foster it in their curriculum. When organizing engineering design teams, instructors may capitalize on the empathic strengths of female students to ensure effective stakeholder integration and responsiveness.