Some Personal Views on Engineering Education for Women

As the number of women becomes a significant component of the student body in engineering schools, engineering educators will have to consider ways and means to provide these students with the best possible training, both in technical areas and in professionalism. Based on personal experiences as a student and a professor of electrical engineering, a range of issues relevant to the educational process of women engineers is discussed:feelings of isolation; feelings of minority status; added pressures on women engineering students; problems with self-image, self-confidence; lower aspiration levels; problems associated with not being "taken seriously"; feelings of insecurity arising from inexperience with manual skills; the importance of role models; educational relations which become sexualized; special problems arising in the research environment. Examples of these phenomena are given and an attempt is made to offer some helpful, pragmatic suggestions.