The percentage of women studying physical sciences and engineering at Yale lags behind comparable universities. The gender gap is also evident, with significantly more women than men enrolled in arts and humanities majors, according to data from Yale University’s Office of Institutional Research.
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Lin Gao
Significant gender disparities are found in two of Yale’s four major academic fields: those that fall under the Arts and Humanities category and those that fall under Physical Sciences and Engineering.
Data released by Yale University’s Office of Institutional Research for the 2022-23 academic year reveals significant gender disparities in certain academic fields, particularly the arts and humanities, and physical sciences and engineering.
According to data released by Yale University’s Office of Institutional Research, which uses a gender binary, there are 664 male and 351 female junior and senior majors in the physical sciences and engineering fields. . On the other hand, the number of women majoring in arts and humanities is much higher than that of men: 701.5 women and 420 men. Decimals represent interdisciplinary majors that fall into more than one of the four major departments. For example, archaeological studies majors are classified as both arts and humanities and social sciences.
The proportion of women in physical sciences and engineering increased over the past decade from 26.3 percent to 34.5 percent from 2000 to 2001, but without a clear upward trajectory, ranging from 33.6 percent to 38.8 percent. It’s changing. .
At the national level, the numbers are even worse. For example, the American Association for Engineering Education reported that in 2022, only 24.1 percent of the total number of bachelor’s degrees in engineering were awarded to women.
While Yale has achieved more success than the national average in gender diversity, it falls short compared to its peers. At Princeton University, women accounted for 40.6% of the school’s Bachelor of Science degrees in engineering in 2023. At MIT, her 48% of undergraduate engineering students were women. At Yale that same year, only 34.5% of junior and senior physical science and engineering majors were women.
Vincent Wilczynski, associate dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, told the News that engineering faculty maintain close relationships with admissions officers while admissions decisions are being made.
Regarding gender diversity, she said, “Admissions is clearly, clearly, clearly looking at this topic.”
Internally, Wilczynski said diversity and inclusion remain core priorities at the College of Engineering. She cited several professional organizations that have helped create a safe environment for engineering students from underrepresented minorities, including the Society of Women Engineers, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, and the National Association of Black Engineers. He said that
Wilczynski said the College of Engineering has many support systems in place aimed at combating the “national and international problem” of gender inequality in STEM.
Although some engineering departments, such as biomedical engineering and chemical engineering, have a large number of female students, most engineering departments are dominated by men.
For example, in the combined electrical engineering and computer science major, there are 10 men and only one woman in the Class of 2025.
Rajit Manohar, director of undergraduate research for the electrical engineering portion of the electrical engineering and computer science major, told the News that he believes his field of study has an “image problem.” He said he believes this deters students of both genders from studying the field, as many do not understand exactly what engineering is.
“I had a really interesting conversation with some people at the art school and I said: We’re a lot more like you than you think,” Manohar told the News. “Because engineering is about creativity. You’re designing something new.”
Along with engineering, physics is also a disproportionately male major at Yale, with 46 juniors and seniors declared as male and 13 female for the 2022-23 academic year.
Sarah Demers, director of undergraduate research in physics, said there are four introductory sequences within the already male-dominated physics major, and the department has far fewer women in the most advanced sequences. He said he noticed that there were few.
“Physics has traditionally been seen as a very difficult subject. There are stereotypes like that, and in some ways it’s important in that when things start to get really difficult, people feel like they don’t belong. It works against us,” Demers told the News. “If people aren’t open and communicating and understanding, ‘Hey, wait a minute, this is actually pretty hard for everyone,’ they might think they’re the only ones who are confused. I don’t know.”
Demers wrote an op-ed on gender bias in science in 2013. She wrote about a 2012 study that found that when science faculty were shown identical applications from men and women for lab director positions, they were more likely to view men as superior. . You are competent and deserve a higher salary.
Demers said the gender inequality in physics majors is reflected in the unequal distribution of men and women in the faculty. Still, Demers added that he is hopeful about the improvements that have been made in recent years.
“I think seven of the 37 tenure-track faculty members are women,” Demers said. “This is actually a very good thing in the domestic context. If you go back 20 years, there were times when it was one or two people.”
Demers told the News that her department focuses not only on gender, but also on other types of diversity, specifically citing race and ethnicity.
She said diversity is important for reasons deeper than optics: different perspectives and backgrounds can improve the work environment and the ideas and discoveries that emerge from it.
“It’s also good for science,” she says. “So you can’t do as much physics or good physics if you’re artificially restricting participants, right?”
These questions are at the heart of the science course “Being Human in STEM,” led by Professors Rona Ramos GRD ’10 and Benjamin Machta.
This course addresses the topic of diversity and representation in STEM fields and explores solutions to these stagnations.
The majority of the class focuses on discussion of readings, including peer-reviewed papers on topics such as stereotype threat. This phenomenon shows that people tend to rely on their own vocalized stereotypes when performing intellectual tasks.
“It’s great to hear young people’s perspectives on this,” Makuta said. “It’s a really fun course.”
For their final assignment, students aim to create and implement a project that improves Yale’s STEM culture.
Mr. Makuta pointed out that the issue of gender inequality is complex and has no clear basis.
“This is really a cultural issue,” Makuta told the News. “And culture is slow to change.”
Yale first admitted women in 1969.
Pam Ogbebor contributed reporting.
