ENGAGING GIRLS IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION: BALANCING THE GENDER DIVIDE

Abstract

Girls continue to show little interest in engineering, despite the workforce demand and premium salaries this career area provides. A diverse engineering workforce is critical in attracting the talent needed for continued economic growth and, even more importantly, for increasing the creative and innovative perspectives needed for solutions to society’s pressing issues. This qualitative study focused on how girls navigated into a high school engineering course and their experiences in that class. Six female students and two male participants were included in the study. Parental influence, early STEM experiences, an introduction to engineering in middle school, a love of math or science, and a dislike of English/language arts were factors in student navigation to a high school engineering course. The participants’ attributes included introversion and they were generally the oldest child. Increasing diversity in engineering will require introducing STEM concepts at an early age for all students and reframing the image of this field.