 The Sloan Career Cornerstone Center
provides this page to support girls and women who are interested in
exploring career paths in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, computing, and healthcare. Here you'll find ideas for networking, exploring STEM via summer
projects, scouting, and teacher resources. Precollege
Programs
 Many universities
have special programs for girls at the high
school level, including the following:
-
Massachusetts Institute
of Technology's Women Technology Program is a four-week summer
academic and residential experience where female high school
students explore engineering through hands-on classes, labs, and
team-based projects in the summer after their junior year.
-
KU Society of Women Engineers Weekend of Engineering is an
opportunity for high school women to experience engineering
activities and information sessions and take place in October and
February.
Girl
Scout Programs
 Girl
Scouts introduces girls of every age to science, technology,
engineering, and math (STEM) activities that are relevant to everyday
life. Whether they're discovering how a car's engine runs, becoming math
whizzes, or learning about careers in STEM fields, girls are moving
forward into the future. They can host science fairs, design websites,
plan for space exploration, visit geological sites, and more. One
of their latest programs is "Lighten Up!" which is a guide shows girls
how optics concepts relate to current research and why optics is so
important in everyday life.
Mentoring
Opportunities
Some universities and companies have established mentoring programs to
link students with professionals. An example is the
University of Notre Dame's
Minority Engineering Program, which offers E-mentoring support to
students.
Summer Programs
 Summer programs are great opportunities for
students to explore different career fields. There are also
several focused specifically for precollege girls
interested in engineering, including
the following:
-
Engineer Girl
-
Georgia
Institute of Technology
TEC Camp (Technology, Engineering & Computing) for Middle
School Girls
- Kansas
State University - Girls Researching Our World
-
University of Kansas Project Discovery
- Summer
Days Math and Science Camp for Girls
- University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Girls' Adventures in Mathematics, Engineering, and Science
-
University of Nebraska-Lincoln - All
Girls All Math Camp
-
Girls Exploring
Math Camp (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University)
Scholarship Opportunities
Many
universities have scholarship programs
specifically for high achieving high school girls. Be
sure to check with universities you are considering about what services,
programs, materials,
scholarships, and events they sponsor.
Some professional societies also offer or help
coordinate
scholarship programs for women, such as the
Society of Women Engineers. Some companies also offer scholarship
programs for women, such as the
Talbots
Women's Scholarship Fund.
 Professional Association Support
Several special focus professional associations have developed to help
serve the needs of our diverse workforce. Many of these groups also
have student chapters, which can help form valuable
networking opportunities at an early age.
For example,
the Society of Women Engineers offer a
precollege site with resources for
precollege girls.
 The following is a sampling of organizations
that support women; a full list is available on the
Cornerstone association page:
Teacher
Resources
There are other
publications and resources that are also specifically designed to
encourage girls and support women, including
-
Girls In Engineering - PDF book which makes recommendations on how
science and engineering should be taught so as to increase the number of
women and minorities in the scientific and engineering workforce.
University Resources
Many universities offer special programs to support both precollege
girls and university women who are interested in science, engineering,
technology, and medicine. For example, the
Women in Science and Engineering
program at the University of Michigan was established to provide
support to girls and women, as was the
Women in Engineering
Program at Purdue University. Check with your local university
to find out what resources they may offer, including special events,
summer programs, Saturday workshops, and other resources for
girls and women. The following is recent data from ASEE (American
Society for Engineering Education) showing engineering gender breakdown
for those earning bachelor degrees in engineering over the past several
years:
Engineering
Bachelor's Degrees |
1999 |
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
|
Total Bachelor's Degrees |
61,533 |
63,820 |
64,200 |
66,781 |
71,165 |
72,893 |
73,602 |
74,186 |
|
Female |
21.2% |
20.8% |
19.9% |
20.9% |
20.4% |
20.3% |
19.5% |
19.5% |
|
Male |
78.8% |
79.2% |
80.1% |
79.1% |
79.6% |
79.7% |
80.5% |
80.5% |
What
the Research Says
According to a 2007
report by the Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology,
women have made substantial progress in preparing for careers in science
and engineering (S&E), earning half (50%) of the bachelor's degrees, 44%
of the master's and 37% of the doctorates awarded in S&E fields in
2005.
Further, recent data
from the American Society for Engineering Engineering provides ethnicity
and gender information about the 74,186 engineering Bachelor's Degrees
awarded in 2006:
- African American
Male = 2,357
- African American Female = 1,021
- Asian American Male = 7,070
- Asian American Female = 2,328
- Hispanic Male = 3,878
- Hispanic Female = 1,209
- Native American Male = 278
- Native American Female = 82
- Caucasian Male = 37,629
- Caucasian Female = 7,607
- Foreign National Male = 4,162
- Foreign National Female = 1,198
- Other Male = 4,350
- Other Female = 1,017
- Total Male = 59,724
- Total Female = 14,462
Sloan
Career Cornerstone Center Profile Excerpts
The following excerpts from Cornerstone profiles address the issues of
careers for women:
 Beth
Lemen
Site Operations Manager,
P&G Pharmaceuticals
Procter & Gamble
Cincinnati, OH
"In college, I did find it
difficult as a woman, because it was primarily male-oriented, and most of
the people in my classes tended to clump together in groups. You know,
four guys would work on a project; three guys would work on a project. And
it was rare, for whatever reason, that you had a real mixed group. So, it
was difficult in school. Coming into the work place, I have found
credibility to be a bit of an issue. Even though you've got your
engineering degree, you're still a woman. And the company I work believes
in diversity and values everyone's background and everyone's view. So,
being a woman engineer, I have not felt that my skills have been
overlooked in the workplace. I worked very closely with a male engineer,
in one of my roles, and he would seek me out for advice and to work on
other projects with him, because he knew I had technically sound ideas,
that I knew what I was talking about, and that I could work well with
people on projects."
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 Deborah
Grubbe
Vice President – Group Safety
BP, p.l.c.
London, England, United Kingdom
"I believe the
experience women have as chemical engineers is greatly determined by
their mindset. I have found that people will treat you with respect if
you behave in a manner that calls for respect."
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 Lori
Laird
Biomedical Engineer
Guidant Corporation
Santa Clara, CA
"To the women
engineers, I just want to say, Stick with it. It's going to be
challenging, it's going to be hard, but there are other people
out there that have done it. I meet women that are 62 and were
engineers way back when. And gosh, I think if I had to do it
back then, it would be much harder. I think the world is really
opening up to women in engineering. And it can be done. And I
just encourage them to stick with it."
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