Women in Engineering Majors

Chelsea Fowler

STEM: The BasicsSTEM 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.

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.

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?

Bachelor’s Degrees ConfirmedThis table shows the number of Bachelor’s degrees confirmed by postsecondary institutions in various engineering fields by sex, 2011-2012.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics 2013 (Table 318.30)

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%)

Mechanical Engineering

20,541 18.057 (87.9%) 2,484 (12.1%)

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.

Bachelor’s Degrees by Race/Ethnicity, Sex, and Field in 2012

Source: National Science Foundation 2014 (Table 5-7)

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%)

Other or Unknown Race/Ethnicity Females 920 (5.8%)

StereotypesStereotypes 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.

Stereotypes of Engineers

What does an engineer look like? Stereotypes of engineers are often white men working in a lab.

In Reality, Engineers Look LikeThere is no one type of engineer. Engineers are men and women from all racial/ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds.

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.

Women Can Do It!Women enter engineeringprograms 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.

How Do We Encourage Women to Pursue Engineering?1. Actively recruit female students2. Hire more female faculty members3. Create faculty/student mentor partnerships4. Emphasize real-world applications of

engineering5. Create social opportunities such as “women in

engineering” organizations to help women form relationships within their major

REFERENCESDiprete, 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