Why More Women Aren't Becoming Engineers

We need to get behind the message that science and engineering are gender-blind.

By Patricia G. Selinger

At a time when information-technology companies scour the Earth in search of technical skills, fewer college women choose careers in science and technology than did the women of a decade ago. The number of college women earning bachelor's degrees in highly marketable fields such as computer science is down from 37 percent in 1984 to 28 percent today.

While women today make up 30 percent of doctors and lawyers and 50 percent of the overall workforce, they represent fewer than 10 percent of engineers. What is wrong with this picture?

It turns out, quite a bit. Like an iceberg, the biggest part of the problem lies below the surface in the way boys and girls are introduced to science and technology. While boys and girls are roughly equal in science abilities through age 9, their interests tend to diverge...