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Harvey Mudd College Makes History, Awards Majority of Engineering Degrees to Women

Harvey Mudd College Makes History, Awards Majority of Engineering Degrees to Women
5/27/2014
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Suada Kolovic

While it was once rare to see women in higher education, there are now more women than men attending college in the U.S.. And while most would argue that historically women have been underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), it seems we’re starting to turn the corner: Harvey Mudd College awarded more engineering degrees to women than men at its commencement ceremony on Sunday. Hot dog!

Harvey Mudd College, a Claremont, Calif.-based school renowned for its engineering programs, said 56 percent of its graduating class were female. College President Maria Klawe played a pivotal role in gearing a concentrated effort to raise the number of women studying in STEM fields since she took over in 2006 and Elizabeth Orwin, a professor of engineering and incoming chair of the engineering department, said she attributes part of the school’s success to having a large female faculty. "Harvey Mudd has a high percentage of women faculty in the engineering department, so female students have more role models and examples of different pathways through engineering,” Orwin said in a statement. "We also have a significant number of experiential learning opportunities which instill confidence early on in our students, which I think is particularly impactful for our women students." (For more on this story, click here.)

Though a lot of progress has been made, inequalities still exist between men and women: While women may be the majority of college students today, they still typically earn less than men and occupy a smaller percentage of high-paying jobs. The good news is there are organizations offering scholarships to women to try and close these gaps – to find additional information about scholarships, grants, internships and fellowships that can help women attend their college of choice, please conduct a free college scholarship search.

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