Women in engineering

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Women have contributed to the diverse fields of engineering in modern and historical times. Women are often under-represented in the fields of engineering, both in academics and as a profession. A number of organizations and programs have been created to understand and overcome this tradition of gender disparity.

History

Factors contributing to lack of female participation

Incentives in higher education

Enrollment and graduation rates of women in post-secondary engineering programs is very important. Undergraduate degrees are acknowledged as the "latest point of standard entry into scientific fields."^[1]

Countries such as the United States and Canada have more flexible entry requirements into post-secondary education, whereas countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia may demand that students study math, physics, and chemistry in high school.^[2] Of the four countries, the percentage of undergraduates completing an engineering degree was 18.5% female in Canada in 2004 and 19.3% in the United States in 2005-06. In comparison, the percentage of undergraduates completing an engineering degree in the United Kingdom was 9.5% female in 2005-06 and in Australia, the enrollment rate of women in engineering was 14.1%.

There are disparities within the undergraduate engineering degree. Women are less likely to study mechanical, electrical, and aeronautical engineering than chemical or civil engineering.^[2] This may "reflect the popularity of environmental engineering among women."^[2]

All explanations for women persisted difficultly are of two main kinds. One is about capital characteristics, another one is about gender difference.^[3] Stereotype threat includes gender identification, gender endorsement, engineering identification and gender ability perceptions.^[4] women in engineering experience difficulties related to the male-dominated aspects of engineering but women who persist are able to overcome these difficulties enabling them to find fulfilling and rewarding experiences in the engineering profession.^[5]

Statistics

United States

Females are underrepresented as both graduate students in engineering and working engineers.^[6][7] The number of Bachelor's Degrees awarded to women dropped from 20.4% in 2003, down to 17.8% in 2009, and back up to 18.9% in 2012.^[8] Master's Degrees awarded to women has not changed much from 22.3% in 2003 to 23.1% in 2012.^[8] Doctoral degrees awarded to women in engineering increased from 11.6% of total degrees awarded in 1995. to 17.4% in 2004,^[9] to 21.1% in 2008,^[10] then up a slightly again in 2012 to 22.2%.^[8] The workforce remains as the area of highest under-representation for women; only 11% of the engineering workforce in 2003 were women.^[11]

Australia

Only 9.6% of engineers in Australia are women, and the rate of women in engineering degree courses has remained around 14% since the 1990s.^[12]

Canada

In Canada, though women tend to make up more than half of the undergraduate population in Canada, the number of women in engineering is disproportionately low.^[13] Whereas in 2001, 21 percent of students in engineering programs were female, by 2009, this had fallen to 17 percent.^[13] One commentator attributed this to a number of factors, such as failing to explain how engineering can improve others' lives, a lack of awareness of what engineers do, and discomfort of being in a male-dominated environment and the perception that women must adapt to fit in.^[13]

In the 1990s, undergraduate enrollment of women in engineering fluctuated from 17 to 18%, while in 2001, it rose to 20.6%.^[14] In 2010, 17.7% of students in undergraduate engineering were women.^[15]

Female undergraduate enrollment was highest in 2010 in environmental, biosystems, and geological engineering.^[15]

The number of women enrolled in undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral engineering programs tends to vary by province, with the highest number in Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia.^[15]

On average, 11% of engineering faculty are women and the percentage of leadership roles held by women is an average of 9%.^[15] The University of Toronto has the highest female faculty rate in Canada at 17% and École Polytechnique de Montréal, University of British Columbia, and Dalhousie University all have a female faculty rate of 13%.^[15]

In 2011, the INWES Education and Research Institute (ERI) held a national workshop, Canadian Committee of Women in Engineering (CCWE+20), to determine ways of increasing the number of women in the engineering field in Canada.^[17] CCWE+20 identified a goal of increasing women's interest in engineering by 2.6 percent by 2016 to a total of 25 percent through more incentives such as through collaboration and special projects.^[17] The workshop identifies early education as one of the main barriers in addition to other factors, such as: "the popular culture of their generation, the guidance they receive on course selection in high school and the extent to which their parents, teachers and counsellors recognize engineering as an appropriate and legitimate career choice for women."^[17] The workshop report compares enrollment, teaching, and professional statistics from the goals identified in 1997 compared to the actual data from 2009, outlining areas of improvement (see table, right).

Initiatives to promote engineering to women

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See also

• Ecole Polytechnique massacre in Montreal, where women were targeted by a mass murderer because they were female engineering students
• List of prizes, medals, and awards for women in engineering
• Women in computing
• Women in science
• Women in the workforce

References