This post contains affiliate links.
Engineering is the biggest field in STEM and also the most male dominant field, with women occupying only 15% of the workforce. Many suggest that the issue of why few women only pursue engineering is because of sexism and stereotypes that are enabled by men’s dominance. Others suggest that engineering is too difficult for women, so which is true?
While pursuing a career in engineering has been heavily promoted to women by educational institutions, studies have shown that most women who do an engineering degree end up joining other fields. This is mainly due to male dominance, which created a masculine environment that most women find uncomfortable and challenging to compete in. On the other hand, studies have shown that difficulty had no direct influence on why women leave engineering.
There are multiple reasons why women leave engineering. One of the issues that has nothing to do with male dominance or the profession’s difficulty is the supply of engineering jobs.
According to the US Census Bureau, around 75% of STEM graduates join other fields. Out of 29.4% of women who major in STEM, only 7.5% work in their fields; engineers represent 52% of all STEM degrees; therefore, around 3.75% of Women who do an engineering degree actually stay in engineering.
One big argument why engineers work in different fields is that there are not many engineering jobs available compared to the huge number of graduates every year (Classic supply and demand issue), as engineering has one of the lowest employment rates in the US. Link to the full US Census Bureau article.
The high competition has created misconceptions about why so many women leave engineering because it is a male-dominated field. For more reading on this issue, check, Why Do Most Engineers End Up Joining Other Fields?
While relying only on statistical facts might not give a full picture of why engineering is a dominantly male field and why so many women end up leaving this field. Therefore, the following is more focused on women’s personal experience in engineering to shed light on the question.
Why do women leave engineering? Based on 4 different experiences.
To answer this question, we asked 4 women at different stages in their engineering careers: why women leave engineering and what challenges they usually face in the workplace of having to deal with men and solve ongoing complex engineering problems. To protect their identity, their real names were not used.
Do women leave engineering because of job difficulty?
While engineering can be a challenging career, many female engineers have done extremely well in building a reputation for themselves for being able to solve complex engineering problems.
Samantha, who worked as a software engineer and was in charge of product development at a reputable tech company, expressed how difficult it was to tackle different coding issues. Troubleshooting code was one of the main issues that usually increased the frustration she expressed. “Solving complex problems is what gives me a lot of encouragement to keep going, although I always had a feeling of unease when starting a new project.”
Not feeling you are a good fit to become an engineer is a myth. Engineers are logical thinkers, and anyone with the same way of thinking can become an engineer. It is often wrong to think that job difficulty is the issue if you put enough time and effort into proving yourself, given that there are no external issues or disadvantages at play.
Beth graduated with a GPA of 6.3/7 in mechanical engineering, yet being the only woman in what was always a team of older male engineers was very much challenging. “Things are always challenging when working on a new problem, but I do not think it would be any easier if there were more female engineers around me; the path to success was always hard work. If I put more work harder than anyone, I will surely come on top”.
Therefore, job difficulty has no direct influence on why women leave engineering.
Do women leave engineering because of male dominance?
In engineering, women are exposed to an industry that men usually run, over 80%, making women a small minority in the field. This opens the field for male stereotypes and also a sexist environment. Despite the efforts to promote women in engineering, this is still very much a man’s world. This makes it difficult to retain women in this environment.
Jess, who works as a structural engineer, she wish if there were more female engineers in her field to break some masculine rigidity in her workplace.
“I am beyond lucky to be working with such professional male engineers, yet I sometimes I wish that there were more of us in this industry; sometimes, it can be hard to be taken seriously, especially when you are the only female in the room, your work must always be flawless, and on point, small mistakes always looked big for my male colleges, I feel like I always need to try harder than any male engineer.”
Because of the male dominance, the small minority of females needed to represent women, and many felt they needed to compete intellectually with male engineers. Enduring sexist comments and casual conversations between men during the meeting was not always easy. Emma had this issue when she started a new job as a senior project engineer.
“I have been in this business for a while now to realise that I am as good as any other male engineer, yet sometimes, I can not help but feel doubt about my abilities, especially at this new job; it can be so hard to discuss things or even finish anything without having to prove my point, despite my effort I always feel that I am not taken seriously although I was offered this role because of my experience”.
Male dominance in the engineering industry increases imposter syndrome in females. Many women doubt their abilities to function well when surrounded by male engineers who undermine their voice. Imposter syndrome in engineering is real and more common in women engineers than men. To learn more, read: What Causes Imposter Syndrome As An Engineer – What To Do?
Why do women go into engineering?
Women go into engineering for the same reason as men: interest in math, physics and science. However, our studies have also shown that women go to engineering to prove themselves as being able to provide something to their community which adds a noble cause to the issue. Unlike men, they can also go into engineering because they feel it offers good career prospects with good pay.
This reveals a huge gap between males and females in engineering. This also explains why many men pursue engineering. This is common when there is gender dominance in an industry. Yet, for this particular situation, when women decide to do engineering, they need to have enough reasons to do the degree with some external influence such as family or relatives.
However, for men, choosing engineering can be what seems as the next logical step because they showed signs of intellect in math and physics and thus, engineering was the next logical step. This also indicates why engineering has been male dominant.
Is engineering good for women?
In our study, we found that women are more inclined to study more than male engineers and thus give them more attention to detail. Although the comparison is inaccurate as there is 1 female student to every 10 male students, on average female engineers, have had more above-average results than men.
Are women happy in engineering?
From the women surveyed in our study, we found that most are happy being engineers. They had no regret in terms of career choices to be engineers. However, most of their dissatisfaction was due to the work environment, the stress of finishing projects on the deadline and the long work hours, which had nothing to do with being the minority gender in the workplace.
Despite the hardship for women working in a dominantly male field, engineers generally are among the most satisfied and happy people in any industry. We did a study where we asked 1000 engineers if they were happy; women constituted around 25% of the study, and the results were mostly positive, with only 14% reported not being happy. If you want to see the full results, you can check out the full article here.
We also did another study where we asked female engineers if they hate engineering, link to that article is here: We Asked 100 Female Engineers If They Hate Engineering.
Why are women important in engineering?
Women are important in engineering because they bring a new perspective to the work environment. Men have always dominated engineering, making the industry closed off and shortsighted. With women coming more to engineering, it brings a new perspective and a new way of thinking that was not possible a few decades ago.
