Although women have made great strides in formerly male-dominated professions in the last few decades, engineering remains one of the occupations where female employees are severely underrepresented. Why is the gender divide still so wide in technical fields?
Women in Engineering
Since 2012, the number of women studying engineering has remained virtually the same. According to a 2019 report from the United States Census Bureau, female engineers represent only about 13% of the total engineering workforce.
While women make up about 20% of engineering graduates, Harvard Business Review reported that 40% of women who received an engineering degree either never enter the profession or quit.
From 2004 to 2009, the number of women graduating from engineering programs fell by 5.2% and was far below the levels in the 1970s and 1980s. In 2019, only about 22% of women earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering. Among the nearly 28,000 members of the Society of Automotive Engineers, only 1,500 — about 5% — are women.
The number of women in engineering programs varies by school and sub-discipline. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has the highest ratio of female-to-male engineering graduates: about 39% of the graduating class of 2019 were women. At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 31% of the 2019 graduates were female, up from only 15% in 2010.
In engineering specialties, women tend to be better represented in disciplines such as mechanical and environmental engineering than computer science.
"Women are drawn to fields where the social relevance is high,” said C. Dian Matt, executive director of the Women in Engineering ProActive Network.
Why Are There Fewer Female Engineers?
A study by Intel asked teenagers of both sexes to read a series of statements about engineering. The teens were then asked if those statements made them more likely or less likely to consider a career in the field. One of the top "more likely” statements for teenage girls was about fixing global social problems, such as bringing clean water solutions to communities in Africa. Similar findings came from a study done by the Harvard Business Review in 2016, in which more women than men cited "making a difference in people’s lives” as a reason for pursuing a degree in engineering.
So why aren’t more women choosing engineering education and careers? It’s not due to a lack of ability. Female graduates of engineering programs tend to have grades as good as or better than those of male graduates. While a few decades ago girls did not typically take the advanced math and physics classes in high school that were a prerequisite for entrance into college engineering programs, this is no longer the case, and the gap between males and females in math classes has disappeared.
Instead, the reasons seem largely social and environmental. According to research by the Society of Women Engineers, 30% of women who have left their engineering profession say it was because of the "organizational climate.” Of the women that earn bachelor’s degrees in engineering, only 30% remain in the profession for at least 20 years.
Perceptions of engineering as a male domain may also be a factor, along with sexism. The Harvard Business Review found that female students that choose to leave engineering cited the "hegemonic masculine culture of engineering itself” as a reason. Specifically, women were often given "secretary-like” tasks while men did the actual technical work in both classes and internships.
Because there are fewer female engineers, there are also fewer female engineering role models to seek guidance from in schools, along with a lack of encouragement from parents, teachers, and school counselors.
More women enter engineering programs than finish (the same is true of men, though not at quite the same rate). Even women who graduate from engineering schools frequently discontinue working in the profession, often citing overt or covert sexism and patronizing attitudes from male colleagues and bosses.
"The real challenges for reaching out to young women is to get over the stereotype that this isn’t something girls do and then to help them build their confidence,” Betty Shanahan, executive director of the Society of Women Engineers, told the Washington Post.
Women in Engineering by Number and in Other Countries
The low number of women in STEM fields isn’t unique to the U.S. either. Numbers are similarly low in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.
However, many Asian nations have a better record of producing female engineers: in China, women make up 46% of China’s science and technology workforce, but not many are represented in senior roles. To change this, China announced a plan in July 2021 to recruit more female scientists into leadership roles in national projects and increase training and development opportunities.
The share of all bachelor’s degrees awarded in STEM fields for both men and men peaked at 24% in 1985, but there has been a positive shift and increase in STEM education in the U.S. In 2010, only 18% of all bachelor’s degrees awarded were in STEM, compared to 21% in 2019. However, there is a continual lack of gender and racial diversity in STEM.
If the U.S. wants to remain a global powerhouse in science, innovation, and engineering, something more must be done to bridge this divide and get more women interested in a career in engineering.