A sustainable approach to attracting, retaining and supporting women in undergraduate electrical engineering

Women in Australia continue to be under-represented in the engineering profession particularly in electrical engineering. Attracting students of both genders into engineering by relying on the traditional funnel management approach is inadequate. The focus of this paper is based on the experience of the School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications at the University of New South Wales in trying to address this gender imbalance in a more sustainable way, especially in attracting and retaining the students. A sample survey from the current female graduates shows that these strategies provide a great deal of encouragement and support to them.