The Gender Gap in Engineering Bachelor’s Degrees Is Widening

A report from the American Society for Engineering Education shows that the percentage of all bachelor’s degree in engineering earned by women has decreased in recent years. In 2004, women earned 20.3 percent of all bachelor’s degree awarded in engineering. By 2012, the percentage had dropped to 18.9 percent.

In 2012 there was a wide gender discrepancy in engineering degrees by specific discipline. For example, 45.8 percent of all degrees in environmental engineering were awarded to women. But only 10.7 percent of all bachelor’s degrees in computer engineering went to women. Other engineering fields where women earned less than 13 percent of all bachelor’s degrees were mining, electrical, and mechanical.

By a large margin, the Georgia Institute of Technology awarded the most bachelor’s degrees in engineering to women in 2012. Georgia Tech’s 415 engineering bachelor’s degrees awarded to women easily bested the second place school, Texas A&M which awarded 295 engineering bachelor’s degrees to women.

On a percentage basis, the standout was The Cooper Union in New York City. There, 72.3 percent of all bachelor’s degrees in engineering went to women in 2012. MIT was in second place with 43 percent. At Princeton University and the California Institute of Technology, women earned 37 percent of all bachelor’s degrees in engineering.

The full report, Engineering by the Numbers by Brian L. Yoder, may be downloaded by clicking here.