Women in engineering in the United States

Historically, women in the United States have been represented at lower rates than men in both science and engineering college programs and careers. Over time, this pattern has led to a significantly higher concentration of male professional engineers compared to women. Additionally, this disparity has led to careers in Education, History, English, Humanities and the like to be seen as “feminine” careers and areas of study. Some Feminist theorists suggest that these social and historical factors have perpetuated women’s low participation rates in engineering over time. Numerous explanations and points of view have been offered to explain women's participation rates in this field. These explanations include beliefs regarding women's lack of interest in science and engineering, their physiological inability to succeed as engineers, and environmental factors in women's childhoods that discourage them from entering science and engineering fields.

Negative perceptions of female engineers may play a role in explaining their low numbers within the field. According to recent statistics, college-educated women are less than half as likely as men to be employed in science and engineering jobs.

Two forms of activism tasked with raising awareness include both organizations on college campuses and those geared towards society at large.

In the early 1960s, a President’s Commission on the Status of Women emphasized the need for women to fill a shortage of jobs in teaching, science, and engineering. In 1960, however, less than 1% of recorded engineers were women. Furthermore, female engineers that were employed were less likely to have obtained advanced degrees in their field than men. Research has shown that these trends were reflective of both men's and women's dominant opinions regarding women's role in the workforce throughout this period. At the time, both groups largely emphasized women’s roles as traditional homemakers and mothers rather than as serious scientists or engineers.

Despite changing political views towards women and minorities during the civil rights movement, college women’s enrollment rates into engineering were still relatively low when compared to men's. For example, in a study of over 440 college campuses nationwide throughout 1971-72, approximately 17% of polled Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) majors were women. This coincides with the fact that, throughout this period, there was little recorded formal discrimination in the American educational system. Women who actually applied to engineering programs were enrolled at similar rates to men. Early increases in these numbers did occur, though, throughout 1968-78. During this period, there was an estimated 100% increase in the number of female science and engineering majors throughout the United States. However, it was also estimated that they still accounted for less than 4.9% of such majors throughout this period.

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