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

Abstract

In North America, women account for a lowpercentage of the student population in technology-related fields such as computer science and engineering. While rates of women enrolled in these programs have risen since 1980, the fields remain male-dominated. Why are women so underrepresented in engineering?Technical institutions, such as MIT, have been able toachieve near gender balance in some of their programs.While this was a goal MIT strived for over the past 15years, it shows that common reasons for reducedenrollment rates of women may be addressed by theinstitutions themselves.As a polytechnic institution offering trades, diploma,and accredited degree programs, the institution described in this case serves students from a wide variety of backgrounds with a wide variety of career goals. But the number of women in these programs remains low. We hope that by implementing programs and methods proven toimprove enrollment rates of women at other institutionsBCIT will be able to increase the number of women in theirengineering programs.This paper includes an overview of the institute, anoutline of some of the broader context of engineeringeducation in North America, a description of anintervention carried out by the authors, as well aspreliminary survey and discussion results from theintervention. This paper offers first steps for others whomay want to facilitate discussion at their institutions.