Getting to Gender Parity in a Top-Tier Mechanical Engineering Department: A Case Study

Abstract

Consistently ranked as home to one of the world's top engineering programs, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is often seen as a model for its undergraduate education programs and research output. However, the school leads in another important way: the Institute also boasts one of the most gender-balanced STEM-oriented undergraduate student bodies in the world.This study helps illuminate the ways in which the Department of Mechanical Engineering has reached near parity in its female undergraduate population: in 2016, women comprised 49.5% of mechanical engineering majors. In contrast, women numbered less than a third of undergraduate mechanical engineering majors back in 2000. In 2016, a cross section of mechanical engineering faculty and staff was interviewed to evaluate how the department has changed over the past 15 years to make the place a much more welcoming program for women now. In addition to the faculty members, the MIT Dean of Admissions was interviewed to understand how the university selects the pool of available undergraduate women who choose to major in mechanical engineering in the first place. Quotes from interviewees are first contextualized, and then interspersed with insights from background research.Thematic analysis of interviews reveals that the gender equality so far achieved by the department has been a result of very deliberate, enduring structural changes, (e.g., hiring processes), and a strong representation of proactive department members with high levels of self-efficacy. These members are aware of gender equity issues, believe in their ability to enact change, and are willing to devote the time and energy to do so. Different but complementary actions, from changing the way the admissions office recruits applicants to broadening the faculty hiring searches, have compounded over time to help produce the current state of near parity in the undergraduate population.It is hoped that the findings in this paper can help other institutions adopt strategies that will lead to improved gender balance in their engineering programs.

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“…The proportion of women has fluctuated between 17% and 20% since then, however concerted efforts are now underway to reach 30% in the next few years (Engineers Canada 2015). The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for example, recently announced virtual parity in their mechanical engineering undergraduate program (Xu et al 2017). This progress lags behind the gains made in law and medicine decades ago and engineers blame themselves for not promoting their profession to diverse audiences.…”

Towards Equitable Representation of Women in Engineering at a Technical Institution: A Case Study

“…Some institutions in North America have been successful at achieving near-gender parity in some engineering programs. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) department of Mechanical Engineering was comprised of 49.5% women in 2016 [5]. In Canada, the school with the highest female enrollment in engineering was the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) which had a 42.1% female engineering enrollment in 2016 [1].…”

“…In Canada, the school with the highest female enrollment in engineering was the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC) which had a 42.1% female engineering enrollment in 2016 [1]. Both of these schools have undertaken initiatives to encourage female enrollment [5] [6] [7].…”

“…• Challenging the assumption that males are dominant on campus which is often held by potential applicants [5] • Providing female-only courses for high school students [8] • Hiring a more gender-balanced faculty [5] and providing access to role models ("existence proofs") and mentorship [5] [9] • Including "applications and context in the introductory courses of technical subjects" [10] • Raising awareness of the gender gap as an issue with faculty and staff [5]…”

“…To start raising awareness of the issues faced by women in engineering and supporting the women currently enrolled, the authors assisted in the delivery of an event at BCIT intended to increase awareness of the gender gap, as prescribed by previous research [5]. Note that this project is not part of our paid workloads, nor is it driven by the institute.…”