Abstract
Many people hold this truth to be self-evident that universities should enroll more female students in science and engineering; the main question then being how. Typical arguments include possible benefits to women, possible benefits to the economy, and the unfairness of the current female under-representation. However, when clearly stated and scrutinized these arguments in fact lead to the conclusion that there should be more women in scientific disciplines in higher education in the sense that we should expect more women (which various kinds of discrimination may prevent), not that we should actively enroll more women. Outreach programs towards high school students may therefore be logically incompatible with the arguments supposed to justify them. They should purport to allow women to graduate in a field congruent with her abilities and desires, rather than try to draw as many of them to scientific disciplines as possible: one cannot try to ‘recruit’ as many female students as possible while claiming to help them choose more freely.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
By ‘the subject’ I mean whether universities should strive to enroll more female students in scientific fields, not why few women actually enroll in science and engineering. In other words, the present article is about questions of policy and prescription, not an empirical description.
Many authors talk of a “leaky pipeline”—i.e. the fact that the older the girl the less interested she is in science and engineering—and want to get rid of this ‘leak’ (see for instance [18]). Yet they tend to forget that this is a simile, not an argument. One can also say that a difference between girls in elementary school and in high school is that the latter have breasts. Can one infer that this difference is due to social pressure? Should one try to put an end to this phenomenon?
References
Felder, R. M., Felder, G. N., Mauney, M., Hamrin, C. E., & Dietz, E. J. (1995). A longitudinal study of engineering student performance and retention. III. Gender differences in student performance and attitudes. Journal of Engineering Education, 84, 151–163.
Wulf, W. A. (1998). Diversity in engineering. The Bridge, 28(4), 8–13.
Gosink, J. (2001). Women in engineering. Retrieved from http://www.alum.mit.edu/ne/whatmatters/200104/
Sullivan, J. F., Reamon, D., & Louie, B. (2003). Girls embrace technology: A summer internship for high school girls. Frontiers in Education Conference (Boulder, CO). Retrieved from http://www.fie.engrng.pitt.edu/fie2003/papers/1159.pdf
Women in Scholarship, Engineering, Science, and Technology (2007). Vision statement. Retrieved from http://www.wisest.ualberta.ca/aboutus.cfm
Cuny, J., & Aspray, W. (2000). Recruitment and retention of women graduate students in computer science and engineering: Results of a workshop organized by the Computing Research Association. Retrieved from http://www.cra.org/reports/r&rwomen.pdf
Lane, N. (1999). Increasing diversity in the engineering workforce. The Bridge, 29(2), 15–19.
Moskal, B. M. (2000). Looking to the future: Women in science and engineering. Frontiers in Education Conference (Kansas City, MO). Retrieved from http://www.fie.engrng.pitt.edu/fie2000/papers/1516.pdf
Rockland, R. H., Kimmel, H., & Bloom, J. (2002). Engineering the future enhancement of pre-engineering programs though outreach. International Conference on Engineering Education (Manchester, UK). Retrieved from http://www.ineer.org/Events/ICEE2002/Proceedings/Papers/Index/O065-O070/O068.pdf
Hermanussen, R. & Booy, C. (2002). Equal opportunity in higher technical education: Past, present and future. International Journal of Engineering Education, 18, 452–457.
Grose, T. K. (2006). Trouble on the horizon. Prism, 16, 26–31.
Baum, E. (1990). Recruiting and graduating women—The underrepresented student. IEEE Communications Magazine, 28, 47–50.
Zywno, M. S., Gilbride, K. A., Hiscocks, P. D., Waalen, J. K., & Kennedy, D. C. (1999). Attracting women into engineering—A case study. IEEE Transactions on Education, 42, 364–372.
Brainard, S. G. & Carlin, L. (1998). A longitudinal study of undergraduate women in engineering and science. Journal of Engineering Education, 87, 369–375.
Chubin, D. E., May, G. S., & Babco, E. L. (2005). Diversifying the engineering workforce. Journal of Engineering Education, 94, 73–86.
Heller, R. S. & Martin C. D. (1994). Attracting young minority women to engineering and science: Necessary characteristics for exemplary programs. IEEE Transactions on Education, 37, 8–12.
Chen, J. C., Owusu-Ofori, S., Pai, D., Toca-McDowell, E., Wang, S.-L., & Waters, C. K. (1996). A study of female academic performance in mechanical engineering. Frontiers in Education Conference (Salt Lake City, UT). Retrieved from http://www.fie.engrng.pitt.edu/fie96/papers/276.pdf
Widnall, S. E. (1988). AAAS presidential lecture: Voices from the pipeline. Science, 241, 1740–1745.
Lefevre, J. (2003). The value of diversity: A justification of affirmative action. Journal of Social Philosophy, 34, 125–133.
Bouville, M. (2007) Is diversity good? Six possible conceptions of diversity and six possible answers. Science and Engineering Ethics, doi: 10.1007/s11948-007-9032-7
American Society for Engineering Education (1999). ASEE statement on diversity. Retrieved from http://www.asee.org/about/Diversity.cfm
Eccles, J. S. (1994). Understanding women’s educational and occupational choices—Applying the Eccles et al. model of achievement-related choices. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 18, 585–609.
Morgan, C., Isaac, J. D., & Sansone, C. (2001). The role of interest in understanding the career choices of female and male college students. Sex Roles, 44, 295–320.
Appiah, K. A. (2005). The ethics of identity. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Sher, G. (1999). Diversity. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 28, 85–104.
Dewandre, N. (2002). European strategies for promoting women in science. Science, 295, 278–279.
Gates, E. (2006). A scientific point of view. Physics Today, 59(4), 64–65.
Cohoon, J. M. (2002). Recruiting and retaining women in undergraduate computing majors. SIGCSE Bulletin, 34, 48–52.
Anderson, L. & Northwood, D. (2002). Recruitment and retention programs to increase diversity in engineering. International Conference on Engineering Education (Manchester, UK). Retrieved from http://www.ineer.org/Events/ICEE2002/Proceedings/Papers/Index/O065-O070/O069.pdf
Roberts, E. S., Kassianidou, M., & Irani, L. (2002). Encouraging women in computer science. SIGCSE Bulletin, 34, 84–88.
Sasser, J., Lineberry, G. T., & Scheff, S. (2004). Recruiting and retaining women in engineering: A Kentucky collaboration. Frontiers in Education Conference (Savannah, GA). Retrieved from http://www.fie.engrng.pitt.edu/fie2004/papers/1023.pdf
Bouville, M. (2007). Should we enrol more female students in physics? Physics World, 20(4), 18.
Nozick, R. (1974). Anarchy, state, and utopia. New York: Basic Books.
Hedges, L. V. & Nowell, A. (1995). Sex differences in mental test scores, variability, and numbers of high-scoring individuals. Science, 269, 41–45.
Kleinfeld, J. (1998). The myth that schools shortchange girls: Social science in the service of deception. Retrieved from http://www.uaf.edu/northern/schools/myth.html
Browne, K. R. (2005). Women in science: Biological factors should not be ignored. Cardozo Women’s Law Journal, 11, 509–528.
Kaufman, A. S. & McLean, J. E. (1998). An investigation into the relationship between interests and intelligence. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 54, 279–295.
Lips, H. M. (2004). The gender gap in possible selves: Divergence of academic self-views among high school and university students. Sex Roles, 50, 357–371.
Serbin, L. A., Poulin-Dubois, D., Colburne, K. A., Sen, M. G., & Eichstedt, J. A. (2001). Gender stereotyping in infancy: Visual preferences for and knowledge of gender-stereotyped toys in the second year. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 25, 7–15.
Connellan, J., Baron-Cohen, S., Wheelwright, S., Batki, A., & Ahluwalia, J. (2000). Sex differences in human neonatal social perception. Infant Behavior and Development, 23, 113–118.
Alexander, G. M. & Hines, M. (2002). Sex differences in response to children’s toys in nonhuman primates (cercopithecus aethiops sabaeus). Evolution and Human Behavior, 23, 467–479.
Hyde, J. S., Fennema, E., Ryan, M., Frost, L. A., & Hoop, C. (1990). Gender comparisons of mathematics attitudes and affect: A meta-analysis. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 14, 299–324.
Jacobs, J. E. & Eccles, J. S. (1985). Gender differences in math ability: The impact of media reports on parents. Educational Researcher, 14, 20–25.
Muller, C. B. & Pavone, M. L. (1997). Retaining undergraduate women in science, math, and engineering: A model program. Frontiers in Education Conference (Pittsburgh, PA). Retrieved from http://wwwfie.engrng.pitt.edu/fie97/papers/1267.pdf
Sullivan, J. F. (2006). A call for K–16 engineering education. The Bridge, 36(2), 17–24.
Berlin, I. (1958). Two concepts of liberty. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D., & Hackett, G. (1994). Toward a unifying social cognitive theory of career and academic interest, choice, and performance. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 45, 79–122.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bouville, M. On Enrolling More Female Students in Science and Engineering. Sci Eng Ethics 14, 279–290 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-007-9038-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-007-9038-1