The scarce presence of women in STEM jobs leads to a lack of job opportunities and is an obstacle to achieving real equality. In order to understand this under-representation of women in engineering, numerous studies analyse the factors that condition the choice of technical degrees, as well as the barriers that hinder their professional development. However, there are few studies that reflect the importance of gender in the training of female students in a professionalising environment, and which may influence the labour market insertion of female graduates. The main objective of this research is to find out whether gender biases occur in the completion of Final Degree Projects (FDP) in engineering degrees when these carried out in awork internship programme in a company.

The study consists of a gender analysis of the FDPs defended at the Vitoria-Gasteiz School of Engineering (UPV/EHU) over the last ten years and their link with extracurricular internships. This university centre currently offers seven engineering degrees, including technical degrees such as mechanical engineering or other more scientific ones such as chemical engineering. The statistical analysis of the data allows us to know the degree of participation of female engineering students in extracurricular placements and to detect gender differences according to the technical/social nature associated with the discipline.

The results obtained allow us to find out what the first contacts of women engineers with the working environment are like and whether the distancing of women from more technological jobs occurs from this first contact with the world of work.

Keywords: Gender, engineering, labour market insertion, retention.