Megan Ortiz

Abstract
Tsui, L. (2009). Recruiting Females into Male Dominated Programs: Effective Strategies and
Approaches. (Cover story). Journal of College Admission, (203), 8-13.
In the engineering field, women continue to be severely outnumbered by men. This is especially
true in mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering. This study is intended to identify the
influences that may impact womens entry into the engineering field and find effective methods
for recruiting women. For the study, six separate sites were selected because of their high female
enrollment into their Mechanical Engineering program. The Mechanical Engineering program
was selected because a large portion of enrollment belongs to this discipline and mainly consists
of male enrollment. The study included in depth interviews with staff members of various
departments, as well as single sex, undergraduate focus groups. Staff that worked in recruitment
and/or outreach programs were also interviewed. These interviews were recorded and later
transcribed. Important and all necessary info was extracted and analyzed. Although theses six
sites were selected for high female enrolment, the programs did not show significant efforts in
recruitment specifically narrowed to women. Most of the activities that assisted in female
recruitment were hosted mostly by female-oriented student groups. Administrative staff at these
sites found women tend to be less interested in the mechanical aspects of Mechanical Engineer
and were more interested in the more humanitarian aspects. School officials are making
substantial efforts to promote topics in Mechanical Engineering that may be more appealing to
women. There are campaign efforts to try and raise awareness that these programs are being
portrayed in a more masculine manner and are deterring women away from this discipline.
Community outreach from various programs and organizations in the area contribute to the large
percentage of female enrollment, despite the fact that outreach efforts are not centralized and
coordinated. Part of community outreach includes undergraduate participants that volunteer their
time to assist in recruitment. This is particularly helpful because most potential students can
easily relate to younger people currently involved in the discipline rather than older people or
administrative staff. This allow the prospective engineering students to gain the current students
perspective on the program. Most of the volunteer outreach and recruitment work is developed
by student organizations. The majority of female undergraduate students interviewed displayed
interest in assisting to increase and widen participation in the mechanical engineering discipline.
People working male dominated field may help promoting women in that field by making sure
that their program is not exhibiting any sort of gender bias and encourages both men and women
into the field. To boost interest and enrollment in these male dominated field, outreach programs
should target younger students to spark interest early on and make students more knowledgeable
towards the field.

Keywords: Mechanical Engineering, Women