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O P I N I O N
Problems, solutions
R ecently, I have read a lot of opinions and articles focused on achieving gender equity and greater diversity in our profession. While I know that barriers still exist, I still thought in my own naïve way that hurdles had been lowered, given so many other stories about increasing STEM opportunities. We’re not too late in achieving gender balance and equity in engineering, but to make it happen, a lot of work needs to be done.
As past-chair of the industry advisory council for the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University, I am aware that the numbers are improving. Women represent more than 30 percent of the incoming class in civil are STEM jobs ... And women in STEM fields comprise the lowest in engineering with less than 15 percent of women choosing our profession.” “Although women hold nearly half of all U.S. jobs, less than half of those
Stephen Lucy
Yet the statistics bear otherwise. According to research conducted by Catalyst, a global nonprofit working with some of the world’s most powerful CEOs and leading companies to build workplaces that work for women, women earned more than half of bachelor’s degrees (57.2 percent), master’s degrees (59.2 percent), and doctorate degrees (52.7 percent) in 2017, and the trend has persisted for degrees in medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, and law. That’s good news for healthcare and law. But engineering? Although women hold nearly half of all U.S. jobs, less than half of those are STEM jobs, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Commerce. And women in STEM fields comprise the lowest in engineering with less than 15 percent of women choosing our profession.
See STEPHEN LUCY, page 4
THE ZWEIG LETTER June 3, 2019, ISSUE 1299
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