Increasing Female Enrollment In The Industrial Engineering Program At The University Of Minnesota Duluth

The national average for female students enrolled in Industrial Engineering programs in the U.S. is approximately 33%. This figure is nearly three times the percentage of female students enrolled in the Industrial Engineering (IE) program at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD), which is currently12%, ranging from a low of 9% percent to a high of 15% over the last 5 years. Although the department has speculated about reasons for this discrepancy, including the emphasis on manufacturing and laboratory courses, no formal study has been conducted to investigate this hypothesis. The department therefore decided to gather information to help understand why the female enrollment is low.