Abstract
Experts bring necessary comprehensive and authoritative knowledge to address issues as they arise throughout a project. This expertise is critical for construction and engineering organizations because the characteristics of each project are dynamic and unique. Practitioners often perceive expertise as objective across demographics; however, this study demonstrates that it is subjective, and that gender-implicit biases emerge when organization personnel rate the expertise of others. This study used survey data spanning 279 employees from one construction and engineering company. The results revealed that men were more likely than women to receive higher expertise ratings. Further, this study found that men were likely to rate women’s expertise lower than men’s expertise, while women’s ratings on expertise show only marginal differences based on gender. The gender-implicit biases found within one large construction and engineering company in this study may be typical in the industry more widely. Finally, this research contributes to role congruity theory by showing the alignment and misalignment between expertise roles and gender roles.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are proprietary or confidential in nature and may only be provided with restrictions (e.g., anonymized data). Data from this research include survey responses. Survey data that refer to the expertise perceptions and identities of the respondents will be excluded.
Acknowledgments
This material is based in part on work supported by a National Science Foundation Grant No. 1828172. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
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Published In
Journal of Civil Engineering Education
Volume 147 • Issue 1 • January 2021
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© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 9, 2019
Accepted: Jun 1, 2020
Published online: Aug 20, 2020
Published in print: Jan 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Jan 20, 2021
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