This presentation focuses on women in engineering majors, the challenges they face, and what can be done to encourage more women to enter engineering programs.
2. STEM: The Basics
STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and
Mathematics
● Women succeed in STEM-oriented classes in high school,
but then are underrepresented in higher education and the
work force.
● Colleges struggle to attract and retain women in STEM
majors.
● STEM careers are often very lucrative - a lack of women in
STEM jobs means that they are also missing out on potential
earnings.
3. STEM encompasses many different fields and
while there are commonalities among them,
generalizations made about STEM cannot
always be applied to individual fields. This
presentation will focus on one field,
engineering, and how women fare in higher
education.
4. To Be An Engineer or To Not Be An Engineer
What obstacles do women face?
● Lack of female peers and faculty members
● Stereotypes of engineers typically do not include women
● Lack of encouragement to pursue engineering majors in
comparison to male students
● Can engineering help others?
5. Bachelor’s Degrees Confirmed
This table shows the number of Bachelor’s degrees confirmed by
postsecondary institutions in various engineering fields by sex, 2011-
2012.
Field Total Degrees Males Females
Chemical
Engineering
6,982 4,743 (67.9%) 2,239 (32.1%)
Civil Engineering 12,523 9,912 (79.2%) 2,611 (20.8%)
Electrical
Engineering
12,086 10,648 (88.1%) 1,438 (11.9%)
Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics 2013 (Table 318.30)
Mechanical
Engineering
20,541 18.057 (87.9%) 2,484 (12.1%)
6. Engineering Programs
As seen in the previous slide, women earn the greatest proportion of chemical
engineering Bachelor’s degrees, but they only earn 32.1% of those degrees.
In other engineering majors, women earn even fewer degrees which hints at
lower enrollment rates.
This means that women who are enrolled in engineering majors have fever
female peers. Additionally, engineering faculties at colleges and universities
are male-dominated which gives female students few opportunities for
female mentoring and establishing support systems.
7. Bachelor’s Degrees by Race/Ethnicity, Sex,
and Field in 2012
Recipients Engineering Bachelor’s Degrees Awarded
Female 15,981
White Females 9,096 (56.9%)
Asian or Pacific Islander Females 2,122 (13.3%)
Black Females 862 (5.4%)
Hispanic Females 1,611 (10.1%)
American Indian or Alaska Native Females 69 (.4%)
Source: National Science Foundation 2014 (Table 5-7)
Other or Unknown Race/Ethnicity Females 920 (5.8%)
8. Stereotypes
Stereotypes are unreliable generalizations about a group that may not hold true for individual members of the
group. An example of a stereotype: boys are good at math and like to build things. Girls are good at reading
and helping others.
When stereotypes are repeated in society, it can be hard for an individual to break free from them and go into
an area they would not stereotypically excel in (i.e. women in engineering).
Stereotypes, while often times false, encourage gender biases that say that boys do hard science and girls
do social science. These biases make it difficult for women to enter and stay in engineering programs and
fields because their peers and supervisors have preconceived notions of what an engineer looks like and they
may not fit that stereotype, leading to a lack of support.
While those institutional barriers discourage women from entering engineering, society primes individuals to
believe in the stereotypes, so women buy into the stereotypes that say that engineering is not for them. In this
sense, stereotypes and gender biases feed into a perpetuating cycle that keeps women from pursuing
engineering.
9. Stereotypes of Engineers
What does an engineer look like? Stereotypes
of engineers are often white men working in a
lab.
10. In Reality, Engineers Look Like
There is no one type of engineer.
Engineers are men and women
from all racial/ethnic and
socioeconomic backgrounds.
11. What Can Engineers Do?
Many women (and men) are drawn to educational programs and careers that will allow them to help
others. Women, especially, are relational in that they form relationships and connect with others.
Within those relationships, women want to impact and help others which leads many women to study
education and nursing which encourage social interaction and helping others.
Engineers can help people too! Engineers can build safer bridges, develop vaccines, create
sustainable energy solutions, and design computer systems that help the whole society.
Without showing prospective students the real-life impact that engineers can make, colleges and
universities will lose out on female students (and all students in general) with diverse views,
backgrounds, and problem-solving abilities who want to help others, but are not sure how.
12. Women Can Do It!
Women enter engineering
programs at lower rates
than men, but...
When women they do enroll
in engineering programs, women succeed at rates
equal to men, earning similar GPAs and
graduation rates.
13. How Do We Encourage Women to
Pursue Engineering?
1. Actively recruit female students
2. Hire more female faculty members
3. Create faculty/student mentor partnerships
4. Emphasize real-world applications of
engineering
5. Create social opportunities such as “women in
engineering” organizations to help women form
relationships within their major
14. REFERENCES
Diprete, Thomas and Claudia Buchmann. 2013. The Rise of Women: The Growing Gender Gap in Education and What it Means
for American Schools. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
Hill, Catherine, Christianne Corbett, and Andresse St. Rose. 2010. Why So Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering,
and Mathematics. Washington, D.C.: American Association of University Women.
Lord, Susan, Michelle Camacho, Richard Layton, Russell Long, Matthew Ohland, and Mara Wasburn. 2009. “Who’s Persisting in
Engineering? A Comparative Analysis of Female and Male Asian, Black, Hispanic, Native American, and White Students.” Journal
of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering vol. 15: p. 167-190.
National Science Foundation. 2014. Table 5-7. Arlington, Virginia: National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics.
http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/2013/pdf/tab5-7_updated_2014_05.pdf
Schaefer, Richard T. 2013. Sociology: A Brief Introduction. 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
U.S. Department of Education. 2013. Table 318.30. Washington, D.C.: National Center for Education Statistics.
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d13/tables/dt13_318.30.asp
