Pipeline or personal preference: women in engineering

Abstract

Although the number of women in the engineering field has increased since the 1960s, those increases have largely stagnated over the last few years. This paper re-examines the pipeline for bringing women into engineering and, based on survey data, examines the attitudes, motivations, and interests of 969 male and female engineering students. Gender similarities and differences are identified, and their implications for recruitment and retention of women are considered.