Minority-serving institutions, or MSIs, graduate thousands of students each year from racial and ethnic minority groups. Many of these graduates are first-generation students and/or students of color. However, there are much fewer women than men graduating from engineering programs at MSIs.
The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) conducts ongoing research focused on issues associated with gender equity in engineering education and the engineering workforce.
Below are SWE’s recent findings on the engineering degrees awarded by gender at MSIs, along with additional resources for further exploration.
Degrees Awarded in Engineering by Gender During the 2022-2023 Academic Year
Engineering, a historically male-dominated field, has seen an increase in the number of degrees awarded to women. However, a gender gap persists in degrees conferred at higher education institutions.
As of 2023, women comprised 25% of bachelor’s graduates across U.S. engineering programs.[1] Among MSIs, the share of women graduates is even lower at 23%.
Degrees Awarded to Minority Women in Engineering
As of 2023, three times as many men than women earned degrees in engineering. According to the National Center for Education Statistics,[2] 21,025 degrees were awarded to men out of 27,443 total engineering degrees awarded by MSIs in 2023.
The disparity is even greater for minority women, who received only 2,713 of the 27,443 engineering degrees awarded by MSIs — representing just 10% of the total and 42% of the degrees earned by women.
Addressing the Gap
MSIs serve an important role in advancing educational equity, and they can be a crucial platform to reduce gender disparities in engineering. Minority women in particular face unique barriers due to their intersectional gender and race identities.
STEM departments can be unwelcoming and inequitable environments for women of color and can lead to their exclusion[3]. Programmatic and support structures can help create an equitable academic environment at MSIs for women.
To view additional information on degrees awarded by MSIs, visit the Degrees Awarded to Women in Engineering in Minority-Serving Institutions dashboard.
You can also read SWE’s research report, “Recruiting and Retaining Women in STEM from Minority-Serving Institutions,” on our website.
References
[1] American Society for Engineering Education, Engineering & Engineering Technology by the Numbers, 2023.
[2] National Center for Education Statistics, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).
[3] Nkrumah, T., & Scott, K. A. (2022). Mentoring in STEM higher education: A synthesis of the literature to (re)present the excluded women of color. International Journal of STEM Education, 9(1), 50. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-022-00367-7
