Perspectives on Leadership from Female Engineering Deans

Despite tremendous gains over the past 30 years, women are still severely underrepresented in engineering and engineering education. In 2009, only 17.8% of the more than 74,000 engineering bachelor's degrees awarded in the United States went to women, down from 21.2% in 1999. Women are currently 12.7% of all engineering faculty, and only 7.7% of full professors in engineering schools. (Gibbons 2010) The advancement of women into leadership roles in engineering education has the potential to make engineering as a career more attractive to young women, and to encourage women currently pursuing careers in engineering education to aspire to leadership positions themselves.