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Recruiting Women into Mechanical Engineering

Recruiting Women into Mechanical Engineering. Nadine Aubry Department Head Mechanical Engineering Department Carnegie Mellon University. Outline. Statistics Why increasing the numbers? Challenges Recruitment efforts Outreach to high school girls Targeting freshmen

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Recruiting Women into Mechanical Engineering

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  1. Recruiting Women into Mechanical Engineering Nadine Aubry Department Head Mechanical Engineering Department Carnegie Mellon University

  2. Outline • Statistics • Why increasing the numbers? • Challenges • Recruitment efforts • Outreach to high school girls • Targeting freshmen • Communicating with current woman students • Changes

  3. Statistics (ASEE, 2007-08) • BS degrees awarded; % awarded to women • Total: 74,170 (18%) • Top 5: ME: 17,324 (11.9%) ; Electrical: 10,790 (12.1%); Civil: 10,132 (21.1%); Comp. Sc.: 5,964 (11.4%); Chemical: 4,850 (34.9%) • ME also increasing the most: 12,859 in 1999 vs. 17,326 in 2007 • ME among 5 disciplines graduating the least # of women • Computer (9.2%); Electrical/Computer (10.7%); Comp. Sc. (11.4%); ME (11.9%); Electrical (12.15%)

  4. Statistics (ASEE, 2007-08) • 5 disciplines graduating the highest # of women • Environmental (43.2%); Biomedical (38.6%); Chemical (34.9%); Biological/Agricultural (31.4%); Industrial/Manufacturing: (30.4%) • Numbers have decreased over the years • 21.2% in 1999 vs. 18.1% in 2007 • Analogy with BS degrees awarded by ethnicity • Caucasians: 65.9% in 1999 vs. 67.3% in 2007 • All others: 34.1% in 1999 vs. 32.7% in 2007 • African American: 5.4% in 1999 vs. 4.9% in 2007

  5. Why increasing the numbers? • Low numbers • 11.9% of ME engineering BS graduates are women (versus 18% for all engineering disciplines) • ME now provides the highest number of engineering graduates • Despite so many efforts, no improvement at the national level! • Rewarding career • Should be accessible to both genders • Opportunity to make an impact • Women are 50% of the population; major consumer group • Women engineers understand better the consumer needs of their own group!

  6. Why increasing the numbers? • Problem solving benefits from the various perspectives of a diverse team • Women often bring another approach to the team, thus enabling more creative solutions from the team as a whole • Shortage of engineers in the U.S. Without more women engineers • The U.S. will not have the skilled personnel to meet its needs • The U.S. will not be able to maintain its leadership at the international scene

  7. Challenges • Perception that this is a profession for men • By both women and men • The majority of working MEs are men; lack of woman role models • Myths • Myth #1: If I am a woman who was not a tomboy when I grew up taking apart the telephone or the dish washer I was not meant to become an engineer • Myth # 2: I need to be nerdy and ugly to be an engineer • Myth # 4: I need to choose between the engineering profession and raising a family • Myth # 3: MEs work only in the automotive industry and can have only a limited societal impact

  8. Recruiting Women in ME at CMU • Outreach to high school women • High School Day: visit by ~300 high school women • Presentation focusing on breaking the previous myths • Hands-on project with small groups • Luncheons throughout the year • Targeting freshmen • Students declare their majors at the end of their first year • Two required engineering introduction courses for eng. freshmen • Presentation introducing the ME discipline and its applications in all engineering introduction courses • Exposure of the woman & junior faculty and their research in the ME introduction course

  9. Recruiting Women Students to ME • Communicating with current woman students • Important step to make sure that current woman students are successful and content • Retention of women • Our own students become strong advocates for the department for younger and future students • Pizza luncheon every semester • Discussion on what to do to improve the curriculum • Discussion on what to do to increase number of women • Communicating with current woman faculty • Involvement of woman faculty • Woman faculty still a minority: 12.3% (9.6% full prof.) of total % women tenured of tenure track in engineering; in ME only 9.6%

  10. Resulting Findings & Changes • Need to talk openly about the existing myths • Women interested in making an impact • Subjects like biomedical engineering, energy, environment and sustainability more appealing to them • Women like to be around other women • Increased number of woman faculty and more senior students help • Women like hands-on projects and team work where they can communicate with others and use inter-personal skills

  11. Some Changes we have made • Communication • Increased communication/social events with prospective and current woman students • Changed advertisement material and presentations to better address the challenges facing women • Curriculum • Changed instructors & some projects in Introduction to ME course • Introduced hands-on, team based projects in most required courses • Developed elective courses on topics of interest to woman students (e.g., biomedical, environment, energy) • Role models • Assigned woman TAs to project supervision • Increased number of woman faculty

  12. THANK YOU!

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