Women In Biomedical Engineering: Current Status And A Review Of Potential Strategies For Improving Diversity

The percentage of women in biomedical engineering is higher than in many other technical fields, but it is far from being in proportion to the US population. From the bachelors to the masters to the doctoral levels, the proportion of women in biomedical engineering decreases significantly, which is evidence of a leaky pipeline. In addition, the percentage of women faculty members at the assistant, associate and full professor levels remain disappointingly low even after years of improved recruitment of women into biomedical engineering at the undergraduate level. Even more alarming, as we show with a new summary analysis of publicly available data, the percentage of women undergraduates in biomedical engineering has been decreasing nationwide for the most recent three year span for which national data are available. In this paper, we review the barriers to women’s success in biomedical engineering and suggest strategies for overcoming these obstacles, i.e., for fixing the leaky pipeline.