Male-Dominated STEM Disciplines: How Do We Make Them More Attractive to Women?

Despite women's relatively recent entrance into many male-dominated fields, women currently make up 17 percent of the engineering workforce, with as few as 8 percent in mechanical engineering and as many as 34 percent in environmental engineering [1]. Of the 17 percent of the engineering workforce that are women, 68 percent are White women [2]. Why does the male-domination of engineering persist? And, why do some fields within engineering remain more male-dominated than others? While there have not been enough systematic studies across engineering fields to determine why some are more male-dominated than others, there is a body of research examining how some STEM fields remain male-dominated (e.g., computer science, engineering, and physics) while other fields have become more gender-balanced (e.g., biology, chemistry, and math) (see [3] for a review). Essentially, the answer is that fields remain dominated by White men because the culture of the field is "masculinized" and excludes women [3]. In this article, I will discuss a few of the underlying assumptions that make up the masculinized culture that excludes women [3], [4]. I focus my review on scholarship focusing on beliefs about women's competence, commitment, and leadership. Next, I illustrate how individuals enact masculinized cultures in their everyday interactions and practices as well as how underlying assumptions of masculinized cultures are embedded in policies and procedures. Then, I discuss strategies for making changes to masculinized cultures. I conclude by providing examples of policy changes that facilitate culture changes and equitable work outcomes. © 1998-2012 IEEE.