Browsing by Subject "diplomi-insinööri"

The different fields of study are strongly differentiated according to gender in Finland (Tilastokeskus 2015). Women are still a minority in the technology working life and education (Niiranen 2016). International studies show that also children’s play is differentiated according to gender (Riley & Jones 2007). The aim of this thesis is to study childhood play, skills learned during play and what impact play has for the career choice. All in all twenty people participated in the study. Sixteen of these were studying to become Masters of Science in Technology and four were already graduated. Ten women and ten men participated in the study. The data were acquired by single person semi-structured interviews. It was voluntary to bring childhood photos or toys to the interviews. The data were analyzed by inductive content analysis. According to the results of the study there were both similarities and differences in the type of play for men and women. The biggest similarities were rule play, construction play and computer games. The biggest differences were the women’s nursing play and the men’s war play. The interviewees felt that they had learned social skills, mathematical skills, creative skills and motor skills through play. There were different opinions whether childhood play had affected their career choices. Some interviewees thought that childhood plays possibly had some impact on the career choice, but not all of the interviewees shared this opinion. Especially some women thought it was important that they could play different plays regardless of gender which made it possible to imagine different career choices regardless of gender.