Women earning Engineering/CS degrees, by school

[jasonRF]

I ran across this table that lists the % of engineering and cs degrees awarded to women by school in 2014-2015. You can sort on any column, ascending or descending.

http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/pa...ring-and-computer-science/2089/?tid=a_inl-amp

This was useful to me because
I have a daughter that wants to go into engineering and is starting to think about possible schools. She knows it is a male dominated field, but would prefer to be learning in an environment that is more mixed. One surprise was that one of our local state universities clocked in at 12% for engineering, which may be a deal breaker if other options are available.

Of course the schools with better gender balance are the smaller, more elite schools that can pick from the best students.

Hopefully others find this useful.

Jason​

 

[Dishsoap]

I'm curious, why do you find gender disparity to be a dealbreaker? I ask not because I disapprove of your decision (after all, if it's important to her, it absolutely should be a dealbreaker), but because having been the only woman in all of my upper-level physics courses, I find it interesting that one would find it to be so horrifying of an experience so as to deter someone from a university which might have a lot of other things going for it.

That being said, this is very interesting info!

 

[russ_watters]

I tend to agree with Dishsoap's skepticism: kids learn about and care about disparities like race and gender because they are taught to care about such things. Instead of teaching her that she's at some sort of vague disadvantage, why not teach her that she can dominate the field? We don't dwell on the fact that redheads are very poorly represented among engineers, so why focus on any other unimportant demographic information?

 

[jasonRF]

I appreciate the replies. I should not have used the term "dealbreaker" in my post, which rightfully prompted your tone. It gave the impression that this is the most important thing for her, which is not correct. In this particular case the fact that the university is certainly not as good (in almost every way) as another state school that she should easily gain admission to was in the back of my mind as I was writing. You could not possibly know that. My appologies for misleading you.

Is gender balance at the top of her list of things she cares about? No. But after the much more important things, like having rigorous programs in the majors she is considering at a price we can afford, and whether the departments have a good track-record of undergraduate research, there are many factors that inform a decision to select from the many schools out there. This is one such factor for her.

Anyway, I still found all of the columns of the table to be interesting even though it is just a one-year snapshot.

Jason

 

[jasonRF]

I'm curious, why do you find gender disparity to be a dealbreaker? I ask not because I disapprove of your decision (after all, if it's important to her, it absolutely should be a dealbreaker), but because having been the only woman in all of my upper-level physics courses, I find it interesting that one would find it to be so horrifying of an experience so as to deter someone from a university which might have a lot of other things going for it.

I think I mostly addressed this with my previous post (sorry!). My wife is in enginering, and of course also had upper division (and especially graduate) courses where she was the only woman. She once went to an academic conference that had a total of two women attending. It wasn't horrifying. It was mostly positive. My daughter has of course heard this.

I tend to agree with Dishsoap's skepticism: kids learn about and care about disparities like race and gender because they are taught to care about such things. Instead of teaching her that she's at some sort of vague disadvantage, why not teach her that she can dominate the field? We don't dwell on the fact that redheads are very poorly represented among engineers, so why focus on any other unimportant demographic information?

There is certainly truth in your statement about how kids learn about disparities. However, I don't think allowing her to use data to help inform a decision is teaching her that she is at a disadvantage. She is already accustomed to dominating her technical classes, and she frequently has some of the best students (boys and girls) ask her for help understanding the more difficult concepts in science and math. She is confident that she can succeed and wants to be intellectually challenged in college.

Jason

 

[russ_watters]

I think I mostly addressed this with my previous post (sorry!). My wife is in enginering, and of course also had upper division (and especially graduate) courses where she was the only woman. She once went to an academic conference that had a total of two women attending. It wasn't horrifying. It was mostly positive. My daughter has of course heard this.

This clarifies things a lot, thanks. By having a role model, your daughter will no doubt be aware that gender doesn't have to matter if she chooses for it not to.

 

[Dr.D]

When I was a (male) undergraduate, there were 3 women in my college of engineering with 3000 men. The three women all seemed to fare very well, and be at no disadvantage.

 

[Dishsoap]

It is so great that your daughter has a role model to look up to! I understand now, and you are being totally reasonable (of course). Best of wishes.