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Women in engineering:
An eye on the numbers
The second in a two-part series exploring women's issues at
the College and beyond
By Bonnie Azab Powell
"The opportunities for women in engineering today are outstanding,
and more women are entering the field all the time. Yet, despite
a growing array of excellent career possibilities, statistics
show that a great many women who have the aptitude to be successful
engineers never try it."
Most readers would agree with the preceding statement. But . .
. surprise! That paragraph, written in 1973, was in the first
brochure published by Berkeley’s College of Engineering
targeting potential female students. The fact that it rings so
true nearly three decades later points to a question that continues
to mystify educators, professionals, and students: Why are there
so few women engineers?
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Fiona
Doyle, chair of the Materials Science and Engineering department,
was the only woman on the faculty in her department for
the past 19 years, until this fall. Photo: Peg Skorpinski
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Great strides have been made since the brochure was published.
Back in 1973, only 1.2 percent of engineering bachelor’s
degrees were awarded to women, according to the National Science
Foundation (NSF) report Science and Engineering Degrees: 1966-2000.
In 2000, the number rose to 20.2 percent. Berkeley granted a slightly
higher 20.7 percent of its engineering bachelor’s degrees
to women that year, a number that rose to 24 percent in 2001.
That’s a substantial gain – but compared to similar
fields, a less impressive one. Women received 58.3 percent of
undergraduate degrees in the biological/life sciences and 47.1
percent of math degrees in 2000, according to the National Center
for Education Statistics (NCES). The disparity between disciplines
is equally wide for graduate students. In 2001, the College bestowed
21.4 percent and 18.7 percent of its master’s and doctoral
degrees, respectively, on women. In the same year, women students
received 52.5 percent of Berkeley’s law degrees and 32.3
percent of its MBAs.
"It is such a complex issue," says Fiona Doyle, professor
and chair of Berkeley’s Materials Science and Engineering
department, who has served in policy and admissions capacities
for the University’s Academic Senate. "So many sociological
factors come into play. While the job market on the whole is more
accepting of women, real and perceived barriers remain that continue
to deter some women from going into engineering in the first place."
What has the folks who track such numbers worried is that the
overall number of U.S. students – both genders – earning
engineering degrees has steadily declined from 1985’s peak
of 77,572 total bachelor’s degrees to 59,536 in 2000, according
to the NSF. Women may make up an increasing slice of the engineering
pie, but the percentage of women choosing engineering versus other
majors has remained minuscule for years – plateauing at
1.7 percent since 1995.
There’s no visible electric fence around engineering. Despite
the difficult economy, engineering jobs remain plentiful, with
average starting salaries for male and female engineers comparing
favorably with those in law, medicine, and even business. And
according to many younger Berkeley engineering students, female
students face little or no overt discrimination from men in the
classroom. "Among peers, I see male students being very supportive
of their female classmates. These days there seems to be a genuine
enjoyment of working together across gender boundaries,"
confirms Doyle.
Continued on Page
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