Compared to its peers at the national level, the Tufts University School of Engineering (SOE) has been very successful at recruiting and retaining female engineers, according to a report published by two members of the Tufts community.
Dean of Engineering Linda Abriola and Director of Education and Development for the School of Arts, Sciences, & Engineering Dr. Margery Davies wrote the report, which is called "Attracting and Retaining Women in Engineering: The Tufts Experience."
Nationally, the percentage of engineering bachelor's degrees obtained by women has hovered at around 20 percent for the past eight years, creating a job market dominated by men.
But at Tufts, the numbers are much more favorable. Last year, 26.8 percent of the engineering bachelor's degrees were awarded to women and this year nearly 31 percent of SOE freshman are female.
Beyond that, Tufts boasts a 99 percent four-year graduation rate for its female engineers, according to Davies.
This is particularly important because, according to Abriola, one reason that the national percentage of female engineers is so low is that many "get discouraged and drop out."
When analyzing these numbers, Abriola and Davies decided that there is no single reason for the SOE's success. "We decided it was a combination of a number of factors," Abriola said.
One of the most important, she said, is the general atmosphere at Tufts, where engineering students often interact a lot with peers from the School of Arts and Sciences. This is particularly helpful for students who have a variety of interests, she said, noting that many engineers double major in a non-engineering field. "They come to Tufts because they feel they can pursue a balance," she said.
SOE Freshman Claire Rollor agreed. "I didn't want to be just a hardcore engineer," she said. "At Tufts I felt like I could express myself in other ways, like music."
The success is also due to conscious efforts to enroll female engineering students, Davies said.
According to the report, the acceptance rate is 41 percent for female engineers compared to the overall SOE acceptance rate of 34 percent.
Tufts also makes an effort to attract female engineering faculty. The SOE has nearly doubled the national average for female engineering faculty members, Abriola said.
Beyond the efforts that the SOE makes to attract female instructors, Abriola said that the campus is a naturally welcoming environment.
"It's a diverse community. There are a number of women in important leadership positions so I think that helps us recruit other women," she said.
Another finding showed that female engineering students at Tufts slightly outperformed their male counterparts in the classroom. For the five classes that graduated between 2001 and 2005, the average GPA for females was 3.30, as compared to 3.24 for males, according to the study.
"That surprised me," Davies said. "I didn't expect there to be any appreciable difference between the sexes."
According to Abriola, these findings can be used to make female recruitment even stronger. Specifically, she found during the study that female participation is particularly high in programs involving teamwork and that provide hands-on experience helping outside communities.
"We saw that women were [more involved] in those kinds of activities," she said. As a result, she said that the SOE will work to build on Engineers Without Borders and other programs that allow for such interaction. That way "engineering is more connected to their lives," she said.
Beyond specific policy recommendations, she also said that it is helpful just to have a better understanding of the numbers and to know how Tufts compares to other schools.
"I didn't really ... appreciate how we stacked up with some of the schools," she said. "When you're doing something good and you don't understand why, it's good to step back and try to figure out why."
