Women in Engineering

Historically, women in the United States have been represented at lower rates than men in both science and engineering college programs and careers. Over time, this pattern has led to a significantly higher concentration of male professional engineers compared to women. Women make up 20-25% of Software Engineers across the United States.  Unfortunately with that, it seems that the number is decreasing as companies are challenged to find viable women and diverse candidates.

Negative perceptions of female engineers may play a role in explaining their low numbers within the field.  According to recent statistics, college-educated women are less than half as likely as men to be employed in science and engineering jobs.  How do we get women more interested in the Computer Engineering fields?  What are some steps that we can take to bring interest to Women in the field.

Several companies have taken several steps to move forward with hiring more women in the field so that they can begin to feel more inclusive.  There have also been several programs that have been born to introduce Engineering/Computer Science to women with programs such as Black Girls Code, GirlTrek, Girls Who Code and many others. These are opportunities for women to get introduced to Engineering in a fun and inclusive manner.

If you have an interest in Computer Science, feel free to check out opportunities such as the free Computer Science/Software Development class that they are offering: Harvard Free Coding Course (free-courses.info)  As well, you can utilize https://www.code.org to participate in great activities for growth.