Colleges Push For More Female Engineers

Well, it looks like colleges are wanting to see more ladies in the geek labs…

ATLANTA – Georgia Tech freshman Val Uyemura caught a glimpse of her future even before she started classes in electrical engineering. “When I went to orientation, they split us up by major and I was the only woman,” Uyemura said.

Uyemura, 18, whose parents have engineering degrees, is one of 87 women out of 855 engineering majors enrolled at the school. Nationally, women make up only about one-fifth of students in engineering programs.

Experts argue that if the United States is to remain competitive with other countries in the engineering field, it will have to find better ways to encourage women to join the profession.

“One of the reasons has to do with the negative stereotype in engineering — the nerd drinking Cokes and eating Twinkies until 3 in the morning,” said William Wulf, president of the National Academy of Engineering. “The really important attribute of an engineer is creativity. Somehow that’s not what high school girls are hearing about.”

The U.S. lags behind countries such as China and India in producing engineers and scientists out of college each year, and women and minorities are key to improving that standing, Wolf said. They bring the diverse perspectives needed for the innovation that can set the U.S. apart, he said.

A 2003 study by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Research on Women and Gender found that females choose other careers because they don’t see engineering as a way to help others. The study, conducted over 17 years, followed Michigan students from 6th grade through college and beyond.

Georgia Tech offers annual engineering camps for middle- and high-school girls, and the university’s students and alumni regularly visit schools to talk to science and math classes. A mentoring program also connects female engineering majors in their third and fourth years with freshmen who want to major in engineering.

Still, female enrollment hasn’t changed much at the Atlanta university in the last decade, and programs elsewhere meant to encourage women to join the field have generally proven ineffective.

Personally, I think this is a great initiative.  More female engineers means more male engineers get a chance to hook up.  And then they can create really smart offspring that go on to invent all kinds of cool stuff!  It’s win-win!