Does Engineering Attract or Repel Female Students Who Passionately Want to Help People?

Engineering promotes itself with messages that engineers help people, which may help attract female students. But will the curriculum that the students find in college reinforce this desire to help people through engineering... or will they decide that they are better able to pursue this goal through other avenues? This study explored the attitudes of female students at the end of their first semester in engineering in order to help answer this question. Students’ reflective essays from first year introduction to civil engineering (CE), environmental engineering (EvE), and architectural engineering (AE) courses were analyzed for content. The students were asked to discuss if they were interested in continuing to major in CE/EvE/AE and why or why not. A rubric was used to score the extent to which the students indicated that helping people was a motivation toward engineering; 35% of CE students and 32% of EvE students indicated that their primary motivation toward the major was the ability to help people. Engineers Without Borders (EWB) and first-year projects courses were beneficial in helping students understand the potential for engineering to positively impact people’s lives. Of the students who indicated that their primary reason for selecting an engineering major was to help people, 50% persisted in CE, AE, or EvE disciplines, 11% transferred to other engineering disciplines, and 39% transferred to non-engineering disciplines. These students cited multiple reasons for plans to transfer out of engineering. Most of the students motivated to a career where they could help people maintained this vision for non-engineering disciplines. The study results indicate that serving society through engineering is a significant motivation for many female students and that further emphasis on the societal benefits of engineering in the first year might help to retain these students.