Y B ME? : an analysis of the status of women in mechanical engineering and the Women's Technology Program as a potential long-term solution

Abstract

The issue of the lack of women in the fields of science and engineering has recently received new attention by the scientific and women's studies communities alike. In fields such as Mechanical Engineering there continues to be a marked lack of women, especially when looking at higher levels of academia. One solution that has been suggested is to provide young women with a pre-collegiate introduction to engineering and also to give them opportunities to be in contact with women in the field. The Women's Technology Program (WTP), a summer program for girls who have just finished their junior year of high school, was originally created to help solve this problem in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department at MIT. Due to its apparent success in the four years of its existence, it was felt that the development of such a program in the Mechanical Engineering department at MIT might be a worthwhile effort. The WTP in ME will contain an overview of many of the topics of mechanical engineering, with an emphasis on critical thinking and problem solving, two skills that are invaluable to engineers and are rarely taught below the university level.