Persistent Gender Inequity in U.S. Undergraduate Engineering: Looking to Jordan and Malaysia for Factors to their Success in Achieving Gender Parity

Abstract

Abstract Successful Recruitment and Retention of Women into Engineering: A Review of What Works Abroad to inform US PracticesIn the 1950’s women represented less than 5% of the graduating classes in schools of law,medicine and engineering in the United States (US) (Diekman et. al., 2010). During theintervening years, despite overt and covert discrimination, US women fought in both the courtsand public opinion forums to be admitted into schools of law and (human and veterinary)medicine without funding by the federal government or professional societies (Kam, 2005).Women now comprise 50% or more of the graduating classes in these professions.Since the 1970’s, millions of dollars have been spent by the federal government, industry andprofessional societies to increase the number of young women in engineering programs in theUS. These efforts have helped to increase the participation of women in engineering from 2% inthe mid-seventies to 17% in the nineties to 20% at the turn of the century. The percentage hasdecreased slightly as we enter the second decade of the 21st century (NSF, 2011). Clearly,achieving the parity that exists in other previously male-dominated fields such as law andmedicine has proven to be much more challenging than predicted.The Equal Opportunities for Women and Minorities in Science and Technology Act (EOWMST)of 1981 charged the National Science Foundation (NSF) to proactively recruit women andminorities in science and engineering in order to promote proportionate representation, with avaried annual budget of 7 million to 10 million dollars. Institutions such as Harvard Universityhave invested $30 million to change policies and practices that contribute to the slow integrationand advancement of women in faculty positions in these fields. These funds have been used to 1)study and understand the explicit and implicit patterns of discrimination against women inengineering schools and workplaces, 2) identify and campaign against incorrect and negativestereotypes about women’s cognitive abilities with respect to science and engineering, 3) attractyoung women to the engineering profession by convincing them that engineers make a positiveimpact on society and 4) retain them once they are in engineering school by providing (amongothers) alternative instruction, mentors and role models.The US federal government, industry and professional engineering societies continue tocontribute millions of dollars to increase the number of women in US engineering programs withminimal impact. It appears that there are factors in the Malaysian environment that that yield asignificantly higher recruitment and retention rate in engineering for women, yet those factorsremain undefined (Zainal, 2009).The US-based and focused research on this issue is almost entirely US centric. This paperprovides a targeted cross-cultural review of the literature to inform the global communityinterested in increasing the number of women in the engineering profession. This paper willarticulate and analyze the different experiences that women have in different countries in order todetermine best practices that can be used for increasing the number of women in the engineeringfield globally.