Pursuing an engineering degree has a fair amount of challenges with it. At one point in time the field of engineering was filled with Caucasian or Asian men, which thankfully is changing. The intent of this project is to highlight some of those changes. The changing needs of the world have opened up opportunities for aspiring engineers from all walks of life. Engineering is empowering society in unprecedented ways. It is at the center of innovation and can address the challenges facing the world. In order for the engineering discipline to reach its full potential, however, the engineering education community and the engineering profession must better include all segments of our society. In particular, engineering must actively engage and help promote the pursuit of engineering education and engineering careers with those …show more content…
Only about 10% of the engineering workforce is represented by women. Many STEM (science technology engineering and math) schools, colleges, and universities have enacted programs that provide incentives to attract female engineering students. Some schools have even started female centered classes to help bring diversity to the field. The trends show a significant increase by women in the graduate and doctoral areas of engineering. Women represented a larger percentage of Master’s and Doctoral students in 2015 than the year before. They also earned a larger share of graduate than of Bachelor’s degrees. Women were awarded 19.9 percent of all Bachelor’s degrees awarded by an engineering program in 2015 and made up 21.4 percent of undergraduates enrolled in engineering. They received 25.2 percent of Master’s degrees and 23.1 percent of doctoral degrees in 2015. Women represented 24.1 percent of students studying for a Master’s degree in 2015 and 26.2 percent of those pursuing a doctorate. These statistics illuminate a trend toward gender