The Pipeline Still Leaks and More Than You Think: A Status Report on Gender Diversity in Biomedical Engineering

While the percentage of women in biomedical engineering is higher than in many other technical fields, it is far from being in proportion to the US population. The decrease in the proportion of women and underrepresented minorities in biomedical engineering from the bachelors to the masters to the doctoral levels is evidence of a still leaky pipeline in our discipline. In addition, the percentage of women faculty members at the assistant, associate and full professor levels remain disappointingly low even after years of improved recruitment of women into biomedical engineering at the undergraduate level. Worse, the percentage of women graduating with undergraduate degrees in biomedical engineering has been decreasing nationwide for the most recent three year span for which national data are available. Increasing diversity in biomedical engineering is predicted to have significant research and educational benefits. The barriers to women’s success in biomedical engineering and strategies for overcoming these obstacles—and fixing the leaks in the pipeline—are reviewed.

[1]  Kelsey E. Medeiros,et al.  Beyond Bias and Barriers : Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering , 2007 .

[2]  Nancy J. Lane.  Why are there so few women in science , 1999 .

[3]  Linda R. Tropp,et al.  Does intergroup contact reduce prejudice: Recent meta-analytic findings. , 2000 .

[4]  T. Tregenza,et al.  Double-blind review favours increased representation of female authors. , 2008, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[5]  J. W. Jenkins,et al.  THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN. , 1905, Science.

[6]  Daniel E. Koshland.  Careers in science. , 1991 .

[7]  I. Blair,et al.  The Malleability of Automatic Stereotypes and Prejudice , 2002 .

[8]  Jo Handelsman,et al.  More Women in Science , 2005, Science.

[9]  R. Steinpreis,et al.  The Impact of Gender on the Review of the Curricula Vitae of Job Applicants and Tenure Candidates: A National Empirical Study , 1999 .

[10]  Greg J. Duncan,et al.  Empathy or Antipathy? The Consequences of Racially and Socially Diverse Peers on Attitudes and Behaviors , 2003 .

[11]  Alice M. Agogino,et al.  Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering , 2007 .

[12]  C. Wennerås,et al.  Nepotism and sexism in peer-review , 1997, Nature.

[13]  Donna J. Nelson,et al.  A NATIONAL ANALYSIS OF DIVERSITY IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING FACULTIES AT RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES , 2005 .

[14]  Gary Orfield,et al.  Diversity Challenged: Evidence on the Impact of Affirmative Action. , 2001 .

[15]  Lu Hong,et al.  Groups of diverse problem solvers can outperform groups of high-ability problem solvers. , 2004, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[16]  Peg Boyle Single,et al.  On Belay: Peer‐Mentoring and Adventure Education for Women Faculty in Engineering , 2003 .

[17]  Ilene J. Busch‐Vishniac,et al.  Can Diversity in the Undergraduate Engineering Population BE Enhanced Through Curricular Change , 2004 .

[18]  J. Dovidio,et al.  Aversive Racism and Selection Decisions: 1989 and 1999 , 2000, Psychological science.

[19]  Eric L. Dey,et al.  Diversity and Higher Education: Theory and Impact on Educational Outcomes , 2002 .

[20]  Naomi C. Chesler,et al.  Gender‐Informed Mentoring Strategies for Women Engineering Scholars: On Establishing a Caring Community , 2002 .

[21]  P. McLeod,et al.  Ethnic Diversity and Creativity in Small Groups , 1996 .

[22]  Stuart Oskamp,et al.  Reducing prejudice and discrimination , 2000 .

[23]  K. Malone,et al.  Narrations of Race in STEM Research Settings: Identity Formation and Its Discontents. , 2009 .

[24]  Gary Orfield,et al.  Diversity and Legal Education: Student Experiences in Leading Law Schools , 1999 .

[25]  E. Seymour,et al.  Talking About Leaving: Why Undergraduates Leave The Sciences , 1997 .

[26]  M. Faculty,et al.  Gender differences at critical transitions in the careers of science, engineering, and mathematics faculty , 2010 .

[27]  William D. Bauer,et al.  Goldberg revisited: What's in an author's name , 1983 .

[28]  S. Harding.  Women, Science, and Society , 1998, Science.

[29]  Hilary Rose,et al.  Science and Society , 1969 .

[30]  E. Hopper.  The Social Unconscious , 2002 .