IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2008 - 15

Clearly,

aimed at girls. All major
anemic. Between 1983
some of the
engineering associaand 2000 the percentappeal of
tions, including the
age of female engineers in the U.S.
engineering as a key American Society of
Mechanical Engineers,
workforce rose from
to upward mobility
the American Society
5.8% to just 10.9%.
has vanished.
of Civil Engineers, and
The percentage of
the IEEE have launched
women receiving bacheor participated in similarly
lor's and master's degrees in
motivated efforts. If we are still
engineering has hovered at around
failing, it is not for lack of programs,
20% for several years (the Ph.D. fraction
Web sites, goodwill, research, or budgis about 17%). No matter how we look at
ets. Something else is amiss.
these numbers and at related statistics,
the conclusion is that we are not moving
toward parity; by and large, we are not
Are We Wrong?
moving at all.
Let me propose a hypothesis: our basic
Not that we aren't trying. The efforts
assumptions on the intelligence and perto understand why young women do not
ception of girls and young women are
choose engineering as a career path and
wrong. With very few exceptions, the
the various programs designed to reverse
enthusiastic planners of campaigns to
the course are numerous. Between 1993
attract women to engineering (and the
and 2003, the U.S. National Science
associated literature) all assume that
Foundation awarded 211 grants under
what we really need is to make these
the Diversity in Science and Education
uninformed females "see the light." In
Program. Most of the grants addressed
other words, like missionaries who know
the disinclination of young women to
that only one religion (theirs) is right, we
choose engineering. A summary of the
reach out to the pagans to save them
NSF-sponsored studies is said to include
from their collective folly.
"helpful tips ... about how to best
If we could only show these women
encourage girls in pursuing science and
how important/humane/economically
engineering education and careers." Yet
rewarding or intellectually satisfying it is
those tips did not make any fundamental
to be an engineer, they will understand
change. On average, ten new Ph.D. disthat their future is in, say, designing
sertations are devoted to this subject
bridges or microwave amplifiers. If we
every year.
could only persuade young ladies who
One would expect that with such a
now enroll happily in law schools and
growing volume of new work in this area,
medical schools, in programs in accountwe would already have discovered some
ing, pharmacology, and dentistry, to enter
convincing explanations and one or two
the much more valuable occupations of
useful remedies. It has not happened.
civil and electrical engineering, then our
Quite a few organizations-including the
sacred mission would be accomplished.
IEEE Women in Engineering group, the
It is not difficult to discover what is
American Society of Engineering Educawrong with that picture. As wage differtion, and the National Academy of Engientials erode and discrimination recedes,
neering-are devoted in full or in part to
women enjoy a much wider range of
attracting girls and young women to
opportunities. If a woman has the intelengineering, and these organizations
lectual ability and persistence required in
maintain a healthy number of Web sites
engineering school, she is also welcome
and other programs.
in other challenging programs. Unlike
The annual "Introduce a Girl to
the engineering classroom that has preEngineering Day" was born in 2001. A
served many of its 1950s qualities, the
major PBS station, Boston's WGBH, has
alternative programs often offer a friendly
joined the effort and developed thoughtand inviting atmosphere, modern teachful public television documentaries and
ing methods, and a much more immedihands-on campaigns on engineering
ate connection to real-world applications.

SUMMER 2008

Vanishing Appeal
Reform attempts not withstanding, engineering school continues to be a dreary
and stressful affair. Typical curricula still
struggle to include "all that is important,"
and as a result they are overstuffed and
unattractive. More study subjects are likely to be crammed into the heavy course
list; fewer obsolete old favorites are likely
to be retired. The post-university workplace is not much better. Compared with
the fields of education or health care, the
ethos of the engineering workplace-long
hours, high stress, competitiveness, a
"one size fits all" mindset-is uninviting.
This is especially true for women, who
still carry much heavier child-rearing
duties in our society than do men.
The lackluster engineering education
experience and the often unaccommodating (and increasingly unstable) engineering workplace have affected men as
well as women. During the last 20 years,
enrollment in U.S. engineering programs
has lagged significantly behind the overall growth in college and university
enrollments. There were demographic
changes as well-engineering students
in the United States are increasingly
recruited from communities that struggle to lift themselves into the middle
class (most notably, first-generation
college attendees and first- and secondgeneration immigrants). The news about
offshoring of engineering jobs, whether
accurate or not, has not helped.
Clearly, some of the appeal of engineering as a key to upward mobility has vanished, and it is not surprising that
successful young women, even those who
have taken the right classes and are prepared for engineering schools, are not that
impressed with the opportunity. When we
also tell them (as we do) that in order to be
an engineer one must be "a fan of science
and math" and "juggle projects, lab exercises, and reading assignments" they take
one last look at us and flee.
Young women are not dumb. The
problem is not that they need to change.
The problem is that we need to change.
In the view of many young people,
women especially, engineering represents
a collection of majors that promise hard
work during college, often in a tense and

IEEE WOMEN IN ENGINEERING MAGAZINE

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2008