Women in Engineering: A Historical Analysis
“As a woman in the United States, there are certain realities I have to face, like lower wages and lowered expectations.” Speaking candidly about her experience as a woman in the engineering field, Columbia student Madison Cox elaborates on the pressures women face not only in the STEM department, but in society as a whole. Women in engineering have been a slowly increasing minority over the last few decades, following the feminist movement and a decreasing stigma around employed women. Women in STEM have helped shape technology today, and will continue to do so, heading into the future. However, this trend has never grown as quickly as it should have, and even today, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), less than fifteen percent of engineers are women. As a result of historical contention and traditional ideas about the roles of women, the lack of support women receive in education, and hostile working conditions leading to a lack of retention in the field, the
