Why there are less Female electrical engineers?

Answer 1

As a senior female electrical engineering student - the only one in a class of 30, I've thought quite alot about why I'm still taking engineering, and why there aren't more females like me doing what I'm doing.

Engineering is logical. It's about definite results and profit. It's about getting "the right answer" to the question, because if a gadget doesn't work, it doesn't work. There isn't any ambiguousness to it like in the social world. In addition, it's not an absolute requirement in engineering to have verbal and social skills.

For women who aren't that comfortable socially, have a good aptitude in science in math, and either don't mind or are almost unaware that they the minority, engineering can be a perfect fit.

But there aren't too many women like that. And the ones who are, tend to take things like medicine and Biology because they appear to help humanity more directly than engineering.

I don't know many women who grew up taking apart televisions and making hot wheels go "vroom, vroom", around the carpet. Even if a woman does choose engineering as a career, she is going up against men with whom engineering is alot like breathing, the interest has been there since they started crawling. With women, interest in engineering as a career is more likely to come in secondary school or beyond - because they excel in academics. And those women, like myself, have alot to catch up on.

Of course, I'm not saying that women don't have the aptitude for engineering, it's just that engineering is portrayed as cold and hard and efficient, and although women in general may appreciate these things, the average woman would rather be in a major that is more social, requires emotional intelligence, and clearly has a positive impact on society.