Hilary Stout, in a column for Forbes states some of the changing trends regarding the increase of women in math and science fields. For instance, 50% of all MIT undergraduates are women; in Carnegie Mellon women are 30% of the undergraduate students in math and science, up from 17% in 1986. Brown University, together with the National Science Foundation, is making an effort to increase the number of women in its science faculty. Among the best known female leaders are Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo, who has a bachelor of science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Indra Nooyi, CEO of Pepsico, Ursula Burns, an engineer and CEO of Xerox, and Ellen Kullman, CEO of DuPont.
Princeton University reports that 34% of its engineering undergraduate students are females, twice the national average of 17%. The university believes that having more female faculty members is one of the reasons to attract women to this field. Purdue University organizes summer camps for female high school students interested in engineering. Sarah Watson, in a column for Collegiate Times states that the still low participation rate is caused in Middle School, so it’s important to catch the attention of girls at this level in order to increase the number of females in engineering.
