Where are all the Female Engineers? How can we fix this?
A study done on underrepresented women in engineering and solutions to help encourage and increase the number of women in the engineering field.
It is pretty well known that there are statistically more male engineers than women. Why is this? In 2017, it was recorded that only 20.6% of undergraduate engineering degrees were awarded to women. I wanted to figure out why this is and what stops young girls from pursuing an engineering degrees through surveys and online research.
Main Takeaways
I took a class through the College of Innovation and Design at Boise State University called Data Analytics. We were assigned the task to choose a worthy cause and do research on it. I chose to talk about the issue of underrepresented women in engineering. I picked this topic because it relates to me, as I am currently majoring in Mechanical Engineering. Therefore, I was super excited to be able to talk and discuss this subject. The main takeaways from this study is that the majority people agree that something needs to change to help encourage more women into the engineering field. The main suggestion was to introduce it at a young age. This could include classes that focus on the engineering design process, classes on coding, or even clubs like robotics.
The Cause
You might be wondering, why is this important? Well it is important because women also have great ideas and solutions to world problems just like men. So if there are girls out there who decide not to go into engineering because of fear of rejection, not thinking they’re smart enough, or whatever it may be, then something needs to change in our society. The resources that I used to learn about this topic was mainly from a survey that I created and disbursed it out to friends, family, and many people from the BSU Engineering department. I also used online research to help back information. From my survey, I asked them if they personally know more male engineers than women engineers. As seen in the figure above, about 88% of them admitted to knowing more male engineers.
The Findings
Who took the survey?
As seen from the figure to the right, the majority of people who took my survey are students at Boise State University. Therefore, my focus on my worthy cause is mainly directed towards Boise State or places in the Boise, Idaho area.
I mainly asked students who are currently studying engineering to take my survey. This way, I get direct information from women majoring in engineering and their thoughts on the issue.
For my research, I also interviewed two people that I believed will help me gather more information and give me ideas to what to ask for my surveys. One of my interviews, I spoke with a female professor currently working at Boise State University. She did discuss that there was bias towards her in her professional field, such that people would ignore her and speak with her male coworker even though she was his boss. Although, she spoke with me that she believed she had an equal amount of opportunities as her male peers while at University. As a current female student engineer, I also agree with this statement. The biggest challenge that I have faced is actually deciding to become an engineer in high school, not right now in college.
So this got me thinking, if there is typically an equal amount of opportunities for males and females in engineering at a University, then why are there so few females in this major? My thought is that it starts way earlier than University years. I believe it starts at a young age when there is this social stigma that girls are “bad” at math and science. This has a serious psychological impact where if a young girl is told by people around her that she isn’t good at math or science just because she is a girl, then she might start to believe it.
As shown above, it is clear that the majority of people agree that is is necessary for more women to study engineering.
The Solution
There might be factors that play into the overall solution to this issue. However, I focused on introducing engineering topics to children (especially girls) at a young age in the education system. If we can familiarize young girls with coding, robotics, machines, etc., then in they will feel comfortable working with it in the future. It was also help diminish the social stigma because boys will see girls working on the same stuff they are and not think twice about it. I know personally, I would have had an easier time deciding to be an engineering if I was introduced to it at a younger age because I would be able to know what I am talking about and figure out that I actually enjoy doing those things. It is also important to encourage girls to study engineering if they find it interesting and something they are considering studying. A support system can be a game changer for many of these future women engineers.
In my survey, I asked what are some thoughts on what might be the best way to encourage more women to study engineering. The main ideas aligned with my thought process of introducing engineering courses or ideas to girls at a young age. Also, another common solution idea from the survey was just encouragement.
Conclusion
The main takeaways from this post that I hope you get is that it is important to encourage more women to join the engineering profession because of their valuable input that would be beneficial for the world. It is clear that women are the minority in the engineering world and that needs to change. Introducing coding, robotics, and machines, to girls at a young age in school could be the very solution we are looking for to help increase the number of women engineers.
Feel free to email me with any questions or concerns at richellecook@u.boisestate.edu.
