New ethical challenges for today engineering and technology

• New ethical challenges related to feminine values have emerged this century.
• These demanding ethical values justify the involvement of women in technical fields.
• Engineering and technical careers will benefit from the added diversity.

This paper is about the intersection of three related areas: ethics, gender and the field of engineering. It is important to focus on the attitudes and values woven through this intersection because they become essential for the complete development of the moral life of the engineering profession and of the awareness of the fact that this is a profession made up of both male and female professionals. Thus, specific behaviour coming from the feminine part is necessary in order to contribute to enriching the features of the engineering profile. An approach particularly attached to feminine values, in comparison to the masculine perspective, is a sign of commitment rather than rights, a collective social group rather than the individual and of an ethic based on caring for others rather than the traditional rationalistic arguments. Because of this, the introduction of qualitative diversity within this professional field is an important fact to highlight when women contribute to the engineering community through the enrichment, expansion and transformation of the values and attitudes that are predominant in the people who work and/or study within the area of engineering and technology.