Engineering: The Self-Perpetuating Issues
In the United States, more women than men enroll in college with almost half the bachelor's degrees being earned in the STEM fields being awarded to women. However, the proportion begins to vary greatly by field, with female STEM degree holders being more prevalent in psychological, biological, and agricultural sciences while being less prevalent in computer sciences and engineering. From 1998 to 2018, the number of women awarded bachelor's degrees in engineering went from 18.48% to 22.20%, an increase of only 4% in 20 years!
Similarly, in the UK, women make up more than 30% of the technical workforce, however across the UK engineering industry itself, only 12% of the professional workers are female. This is a common theme around the globe, and yet it feels as if nothing is being done to change this.
In a world where we accept and try to ensure our workforce remains diverse and inclusive, these numbers seem far too low to be reasonable. That is why this next section will discuss the self-perpetuating issues in the field of engineering that leads to the continuation of these problems in the industry.