Where Are All the Women?

AAUW Dialog has an interesting post about women in engineering. This is a good, lucrative career interested in recruiting more women. There are good scholarship resources available. Pass the link on the the young girls in your life.

Where Are All the Women? � AAUW Dialog: "In 2007, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that women made up only 13.5 percent of the engineering workforce, more in some fields like chemical engineering and less in other fields like mechanical engineering.

Why is this? As AAUW reported in Where the Girls Are: The Facts about Gender Equity in Education, girls earn higher grades on average than boys in high school, even in math and science classes. But research shows that even very capable girls are less likely to express interest in an engineering career than are boys. In one study of mathematically gifted individuals, David Lubinski and Camilla Persson Benbow found that women were more likely to secure degrees in the humanities, life sciences, and social sciences than in mathematics, computer science, engineering, or the physical sciences; the reverse was true for men. Jacquleynne S. Eccles’ suggests that part of the reason for this difference is that women are more likely than men to want people-oriented jobs that provide direct benefits to society.

Engineers design pretty much everything we use from computers and cars to diapers and dishwashers. When women aren’t involved in the design of these products, women’s perspectives are not brought to the design table (or computer screen)."

Read more of the post. You'll find links to videos about young women engineers and to resources for programs to interest girls in careers in engineering.