Selling policy short? Faculty perspectives on the role of policy in addressing women’s underrepresentation in engineering education

Despite a nearly 40-year history of research initiatives and interventions to recruit and retain women engineering students, women remain significantly underrepresented in engineering. Given the lack of progress, it seems clear that new lenses on the problem of underrepresentation warrant further attention. Higher education policies are one area that has received comparatively scant attention from researchers and administrators in regard to underrepresentation in undergraduate engineering programs. This interview-based research article explores how policy featured in engineering professors’ discussions about gender and underrepresentation in engineering. It shows that, while there is widespread awareness of workplace policies related to the careers of female engineers and engineering professors, policies related to underrepresentation in undergraduate engineering education programs are marginalized. The article concludes with seven examples of student-related policies that warrant further exploration in regard to women’s participation in engineering programs.