Women don’t stay on engineering track
TEXT OF STORY
LISA NAPOLI: Now, while we’re talking tech, let’s talk about gender. A new study shows that schools have been successful in their attempts to get women to study engineering. That doesn’t mean they’re going into the business. Here’s Janet Babin from Marketplace Innovations Desk at North Carolina Public Radio.
JANET BABIN: The study was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council in the U.K.
It found that the number of women engineering students is up 7 percent from 10 years ago, but the number of women working as engineers has remained flat.
Lead researcher Barbara Bagihole of Loughborough Univeristy says the college experience is turning women off to the male-dominated profession.
BARBARA BAGIHOLE: They’re already beginning to see prejudice against women. They’re already beginning to feel that they’re being treated differently. And they’re finding that higher education is not providing them with the practical skills that they will need to take into the industry.
Bagihole found that only 6 percent of all women engineering grads in the U.K. have jobs as engineers.
I’m Janet Babin for Marketplace.
There’s a lot happening in the world. Through it all, Marketplace is here for you.
You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible.
Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.
