At top public universities, a mixed record for women in engineering

[mahatmakanejeeves]

At top public universities, a mixed record for women in engineering

By Nick Anderson
http://twitter.com/wpnick

September 21



Students pass through the Lawn at the University of Virginia. (Norm Shafer/for The Washington Post)

Women earned about a third of all engineering degrees at the University of Virginia in 2015, making the state flagship first on that measure among prominent public schools nationwide. ... But reaching gender parity in engineering could take many years for U-Va. and other public universities.

Federal data show women earned a majority of bachelor’s degrees in engineering in 2015 at two private schools with sizable programs. At Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, their share was 53 percent, and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology it was 51 percent.

Women netted at least 40 percent of engineering degrees that year at Yale (49 percent), Howard (45), George Washington (43), Harvey Mudd (42), Brown (41) and Southern Methodist (41).

{Women break barriers in computer science and engineering at some top colleges}

The national average is about 20 percent, reflecting generations of male dominance in the field. The female share of engineering graduates at most prominent public universities hovers around that mark because those schools have far higher enrollment than private schools. Georgia Tech, with nearly 2,000 engineering graduates a year, has one of the largest programs in the country. It produces more engineering degrees than all of the above-named private schools combined, and the female share of its engineering graduates was 26 percent in 2015, up nearly 5 points in five years.

[exboyfil]

1. My daughter graduated with a

B.S. Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State in May. Her class was about 15% women. Both her head and the dean of engineering were women

She found the faculty to be supportive of her efforts. Her biggest problem came when she was registering for the first semester. Because she finished about two years of engineering school while still in high school she wanted to take the Sophomore Design class which is taken 2nd semester of sophomore year. The woman advisor said she should not do it because she would be in a class with older men.

She did get registered and graduated after two years magna cum laude.

[Igel]

2. Recent survey/study.

https://hbr.org/2016/08/why-do-so-many-women-who-study-engineering-leave-the-field