While women’s median earnings are less than men’s in the same role across all engineering and computer occupations, most disciplines are slowly closing the gender gap over time. The SWE research team takes a look at a few specific disciplines to help equip women STEM professionals with industry insights to navigate the future job market.
Engineering Workforce
Across engineering occupations, women’s median earnings are historically less than their male counterparts despite efforts to achieve gender pay equity.
According to the United States Census Bureau, there were more than 2.5 million employed engineers in the U.S. as of 2023. However, women comprised only 15.3% of the engineering workforce[1].
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025), Current Population Survey, Table 11
Gender Earnings Gap by Discipline
When looking at select disciplines, as of 2023, the median earnings of women engineers were between 83% and 96% of those of men engineers[2].
Mechanical engineering was the second largest among the select disciplines, by total number of engineers employed. As of 2023, women in mechanical engineering had the smallest earnings gap, earning 96% of men’s median earnings in the same occupation.
Civil engineering was the leading discipline, by total number of engineers employed, with almost half a million civil engineers in the U.S. workforce. Women in civil engineering occupations earned 88% of men’s median earnings in 2023.
Petroleum engineering employed fewer engineers when compared to the rest of the select engineering disciplines. Petroleum engineering had the largest gender earnings gap, where women earned 83% of men’s median earnings in 2023.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025), American Community Survey, Tables B24122 and B24123
Gender Earnings Gap Over Time
The gender earnings gap has slightly narrowed, or remained the same, across most of the select disciplines from 2013 to 2023, including all the disciplines with the highest number of engineers employed.
However, in petroleum and environmental engineering, two disciplines with low numbers of engineers employed, the gender earnings gap widened from 2013 to 2023, in favor of men, by 4% and 1% respectively.
Despite a persistent gender pay gap across all disciplines, most disciplines are slowly closing the gender gap over time.
To view additional information on the gender earnings gap, visit the SWE U.S. Earnings Gap website.
References
[1] Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025), Current Population Survey, Table 11
[2] Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2025), American Community Survey, Tables B24122 and B24123
