History and Status of Female Faculty in Civil Engineering

Abstract

Females have become less of a rarity in civil engineering faculty over the past twenty years, but the numbers remain relatively low. This article presents a brief history of females in the profession and discusses some of the issues affecting them, particularly those in academia. The objective is to examine the state of gender distribution in civil engineering academia and perceptions of personal and professional issues. In order to accomplish this, a survey was composed and distributed to female faculty from universities listed by ASCE as having accredited civil engineering programs. These data include demographics, status of mentoring, views on job satisfaction, and feelings of inclusion in a male-dominated arena. As females advance in academia, it is theorized that the numbers of female students will also increase, thus strengthening the engineering profession. This paper is a summary of the first part of the survey.