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SWE

Software engineering is the application of systematic, disciplined, and quantifiable approaches to the design, development, operation, and maintenance of software, treating it as an engineering discipline rather than ad hoc programming.^[1]^[2] The field originated in the 1960s amid the "software crisis," characterized by frequent project failures, cost overruns, and delivery delays as software complexity grew beyond manual coding practices, prompting the 1968 NATO Software Engineering Conference to advocate structured methods for reliability and scalability.^[3]^[4] Key principles include modularity, which decomposes systems into independent components for easier management; abstraction, hiding implementation details to focus on essential features; and separation of concerns, isolating functionalities to reduce interdependence and errors.^[5]^[6] These have enabled software to underpin modern infrastructure, from embedded systems in devices to large-scale cloud services, though persistent challenges like dependency management, testing scalability, and talent shortages continue to test the discipline's maturity.^[7]^[8] Debates persist over whether software engineering fully qualifies as "engineering" due to its relative youth and evolving standards compared to civil or mechanical fields, with critics noting high failure rates in complex projects despite methodological advances.^[9]

History

Antecedents and Founding

During World War II, American women entered technical and engineering roles in unprecedented numbers to meet wartime production demands, with over 6 million joining the labor force in defense industries such as aircraft manufacturing and shipbuilding. Programs like the Curtiss-Wright Cadettes trained more than 8,000 women for aeronautical engineering aide positions, involving tasks in design, testing, and production support. The "Rosie the Riveter" icon symbolized this mobilization, representing women performing skilled mechanical and assembly work previously reserved for men.^[10] Postwar, however, returning veterans displaced many from these positions, and societal norms reinforced traditional gender roles, exacerbating professional isolation for the women who persisted in engineering amid limited recognition and networking opportunities.^[11] Earlier international precedents existed, such as the Women's Engineering Society founded in the United Kingdom on June 23, 1919, by suffragettes and engineers to promote women's engineering education, employment, and mutual support following World War I displacements.^[12] In the US, pre-1950 efforts included scattered informal networks among the few licensed women professional engineers—numbering around 48 by the 1920s—and local professional groups formed in the late 1940s, such as those in New York, Philadelphia, and California, which independently adopted the name "Society of Women Engineers" to foster camaraderie and advocacy.^[13] These nascent organizations addressed barriers like exclusion from male-dominated professional societies and lack of career resources for women graduates, whose numbers had grown modestly to about 0.4% of engineering degrees by 1949.^[13] The national Society of Women Engineers coalesced from these foundations during its inaugural meeting on May 27-28, 1950, at Cooper Union's Green Engineering Camp in New Jersey, attended by 61 women engineers and students from existing local groups.^[14] Representatives unified the independent societies to create a centralized body dedicated to advancing women's engineering careers through professional development, visibility, and countering postwar marginalization in a field where women comprised less than 1% of practitioners.^[15] This founding emphasized practical support amid ongoing societal resistance, prioritizing unification to amplify influence without reliance on general engineering bodies that often overlooked gender-specific challenges.^[16]

Early Development and Incorporation

Following its founding in 1950, the Society of Women Engineers held its inaugural national convention in New York City in March 1951, attracting 112 participants and marking the organization's first structured gathering to foster professional networking among women engineers.^[17]^[14] This event preceded formal legal establishment, as SWE was incorporated as a nonprofit educational service organization in the District of Columbia on February 13, 1952, which provided the necessary framework for sustained operations, governance, and expansion.^[14]^[18] The incorporation enabled the society to establish bylaws, elect officers beyond the initial presidency of Beatrice Hicks, and pursue tax-exempt status to support its mission amid postwar recovery and the escalating demands of the Cold War era, where engineering roles surged due to defense initiatives and technological advancements.^[17] In its early years, SWE launched foundational publications to disseminate technical knowledge and organizational updates, beginning with the Journal of the Society of Women Engineers in 1951, which featured engineering articles alongside society news, before transitioning to the more concise SWE Newsletter in 1954 to better serve a growing but modest readership.^[14]^[19] Local sections emerged to decentralize activities, with the chartering of the Los Angeles section in 1953 signifying SWE's shift to a truly national presence and enabling region-specific outreach to women entering engineering fields bolstered by Cold War-era investments in infrastructure, aerospace, and military technology.^[18] These efforts adapted to heightened engineering demand, as U.S. engineering employment expanded significantly in the 1950s, yet SWE emphasized merit-based equal access for women without advocating quotas, positioning the organization as a proponent of individual qualifications over preferential treatment.^[20] Despite these developments, SWE faced challenges including limited membership, numbering around 111 at the end of its first fiscal year in 1951 and approximately 300 by the mid-1950s, reflecting the scarcity of women in the profession—less than 1% of U.S. engineers in 1950—and barriers to recruitment in a male-dominated field.^[17]^[20] The society advocated for women's inclusion in established professional engineering organizations, such as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), by highlighting qualified female contributions and pressing for policy adjustments to recognize women's expertise without diluting professional standards.^[21] This advocacy aligned with SWE's focus on integrating women into the engineering boom of the 1950s and 1960s, driven by Sputnik-era imperatives and federal funding, while navigating resistance rooted in traditional gender roles.^[17]

Expansion Through the Late 20th Century

Following the enactment of Title IX in 1972, which prohibited sex-based discrimination in federally funded education programs, the Society of Women Engineers experienced significant expansion in its student chapters and overall membership, reflecting broader increases in female enrollment in engineering programs.^[22] By 1980, SWE had grown to 40 professional sections, 154 student sections—more than quadrupling from 31 in 1970—and over 9,600 total members, including nearly 6,800 students.^[14] This surge aligned with rising female participation in undergraduate engineering, where women earned approximately 14.8% of bachelor's degrees by 1985, up from under 1% in the early 1970s.^[23] SWE responded to these demographic shifts by establishing new programs amid ongoing debates over affirmative action policies aimed at addressing historical underrepresentation. In 1974, the organization introduced its first corporate-sponsored college scholarships, supplementing the existing Lillian Moller Gilbreth Scholarship to support female engineering students.^[14] By 1976, SWE opened membership to men and convened its inaugural student conference, incorporating student representatives into its governance council to foster retention and professional development.^[14] These initiatives occurred against a backdrop of affirmative action efforts, which SWE endorsed as necessary for equal opportunity in STEM hiring and education, though the organization acknowledged limitations in fully resolving workplace barriers.^[24]^[25] In the 1980s, SWE shifted emphasis toward retention strategies, launching outreach efforts such as NASA-funded mentoring programs and Space Camp scholarships in 1988 to address attrition among women engineers.^[14] Membership continued to expand, reaching 13,000 by 1990 with 76 professional sections and 237 student sections.^[14] This period correlated with women comprising less than 10% of the employed engineering workforce in 1993, prompting SWE to publish its "National Survey of Women and Men Engineers," which documented persistent gender disparities in career advancement, salary, and workplace climate.^[26]^[27] By the 1990s, SWE broadened its advocacy, testifying before Congress in 1994 in support of the Gender Equity in Education Act and adopting Diversity Principles in 1998 to promote inclusion of women and minorities in STEM.^[14] These efforts adapted to cultural and legal challenges, including lawsuits questioning gender-based preferences in admissions and hiring, by emphasizing merit-based equity over quotas while highlighting empirical barriers like biased evaluation criteria identified in the organization's research.^[14]^[27]

21st-Century Evolution

In the 2000s, the Society of Women Engineers expanded its focus on professional development amid economic volatility, including the dot-com bust and subsequent 2008 recession, by conducting retention surveys that highlighted factors like workplace culture over work-life imbalance as primary reasons for attrition among women engineers.^[28] Membership grew modestly from over 14,000 in 2000 to exceeding 18,000 by 2010, with the organization launching the Work Life Balance Award in 2002 to recognize initiatives supporting sustained careers.^[14]^[29] Concurrently, SWE initiated annual literature reviews in 2001 to empirically assess progress for women in engineering, revealing persistent barriers despite targeted efforts.^[26] By the 2010s, SWE accelerated international outreach, hosting professional development events in India and Germany in 2012 and launching international affiliate and ambassador programs in 2013 to foster global networks.^[14] Leadership training advanced with the 2010 introduction of the Leadership Competency Model and the Collegiate Leadership Institute in 2013, alongside the Advance Learning Center for webinars and accredited education.^[30]^[14] Membership surpassed 35,000 by 2017, reflecting resilience and diversification efforts that incorporated racial and ethnic inclusivity within its core emphasis on engineering aptitude among women.^[31] The organization's 2016 50K Coalition targeted increasing the pipeline of diverse women engineers, prioritizing data-driven strategies over quota-based approaches.^[14] These adaptations coincided with stagnant representation metrics, as women earned about 21.9% of U.S. engineering bachelor's degrees by 2018, underscoring the limits of organizational interventions absent broader cultural shifts in aptitude cultivation and field-wide incentives.^[32] SWE's empirical tracking via literature reviews consistently documented this slow advancement, attributing it to factors like early educational pipelines rather than solely discriminatory practices.^[26]

Mission, Structure, and Governance

Stated Mission and Objectives

The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) articulates its core mission as empowering women to achieve their full potential in careers as engineers and leaders, expanding the image of the engineering and technology professions as a positive force for improving quality of life, and demonstrating the value of diversity and inclusion within these fields.^[18] This mission underscores a commitment to fostering technical competence and professional advancement through education, networking, and recognition of contributions based on merit and achievement.^[18] Upon its founding in 1950, SWE adopted specific objectives aimed at stimulating women to realize their capabilities in engineering by informing young women, parents, counselors, and the public about the qualifications, achievements, and opportunities available to women engineers; encouraging women engineers to pursue high levels of educational and professional attainment; and establishing the organization as a central repository of information on women in engineering.^[33] These foundational goals emphasized practical support for skill development and career progression in technical roles, distinguishing SWE's focus from broader social movements by targeting discipline-specific barriers such as limited visibility of women in engineering and retention challenges in STEM professions.^[15] SWE's bylaws reinforce these objectives by defining the organization as a non-profit educational and service entity dedicated to purposes outlined in its Articles of Incorporation, which align with promoting engineering excellence and equal access to opportunities predicated on ability rather than quotas or preferential treatment.^[34] Over time, the mission has incorporated elements like global outreach to support women engineers internationally, while maintaining its roots in advocating for the removal of merit-based impediments to entry and advancement in engineering.^[18] This evolution reflects an ongoing priority on building networks and resources that enable women to compete and succeed on technical merits within the profession.^[35]

Organizational Framework and Leadership

The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) maintains a hierarchical governance framework centered on three primary bodies: the Board of Directors, the Senate, and the Board of Trustees. The Board of Directors, comprising elected officers such as the President, President-Elect, Treasurer, Secretary, and at-large directors, holds ultimate responsibility for strategic oversight, policy formulation, and operational execution to advance engineering-focused objectives.^[36] The Senate, composed of elected representatives from sections and affiliates, serves as an advisory body, deliberating on long-term strategic matters and ensuring alignment with the organization's mission through member input.^[37] The Board of Trustees manages fiduciary assets, including endowments, reserves, and funds dedicated to headquarters operations and the SWE Endowment Fund, Inc. (SWE-EFI), prioritizing sustainable financial health.^[38] This structure, outlined in SWE's governing documents, evolved in 2018 with the elimination of U.S. regions to streamline decision-making, boost volunteer participation, and heighten responsiveness to engineering sector needs.^[14]^[39] SWE's operations blend volunteer leadership with professional staff support, reflecting its origins as a member-led entity. The headquarters, relocated from New York to Chicago in March 2001 for cost efficiency and central accessibility, houses a modest paid staff focused on administrative, financial, and logistical functions, while the bulk of programmatic and strategic work relies on volunteer engineers elected or appointed for their technical expertise.^[40] Leadership elections occur annually via a vetting process managed by the Nominating Directorate, which slates candidates from professional SWE members demonstrating substantial engineering credentials, professional achievements, and commitment to the society's goals; nominees undergo review for qualifications before membership voting.^[41]^[42] This process underscores accountability by tying positions to verifiable engineering contributions rather than extraneous factors, fostering governance oriented toward tangible outcomes in women's engineering advancement. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, SWE sustains itself through diversified revenue streams including membership dues, event registrations, corporate sponsorships, and investment returns from endowments, with fiscal year 2023 revenues exceeding $20 million primarily from programs and contributions.^[43] Financial transparency is enforced via annual independent audits, selected and overseen by the Audit Committee, which reviews reports for compliance and accuracy before Board approval, ensuring resources align with engineering empowerment initiatives.^[44]^[45] This audited nonprofit model, supplemented by policies like budgeted fiscal guidelines for sections, promotes accountability and directs funds toward mission-critical engineering support.^[46]

Membership Demographics and Chapters

The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) reported 47,059 members at the close of fiscal year 2024 (ending March 31, 2024), encompassing professionals, collegiate students, retirees, and other categories such as life members and precollege educators.^[47] This marked a 8.5% increase from 43,357 members in fiscal year 2023, reflecting steady post-2020 growth amid expanded recruitment efforts.^[47] Membership benefits include access to professional development resources, networking opportunities, and discounted events, with annual dues varying by category (e.g., $20 for collegiate members and $100 for professionals).^[48] SWE's membership is predominantly U.S.-based, with international participation spanning over 85 countries, though the majority of organized activities occur domestically.^[48] Self-reported demographics, tracked annually, reveal a composition open to all genders but focused on women in engineering and allied STEM fields; for instance, fiscal year 2020 data showed 76.95% identifying as female, with the remainder including males and those preferring not to disclose.^[49] Ethnic origins are self-selected, allowing multiple identities, with fiscal year 2024 statistics categorizing multiracial selections separately; specific breakdowns indicate diversity across engineering disciplines but no publicly detailed racial percentages for recent years beyond general workforce parallels where white and Asian women predominate.^[50] SWE maintains a chapter model comprising over 400 collegiate sections at universities and professional sections in industry settings across the United States and Puerto Rico, alongside 40 U.S. affiliates and nearly 100 international affiliates.^[52] Collegiate sections require at least 10 members for establishment, while affiliates need a minimum of one, facilitating localized engagement in career support and technical events.^[53] In 2024, the organization added 35 new affiliates and sections, contributing to its global footprint without centralized interpretive emphasis on recruitment drivers.^[54]

Programs and Activities

Educational Outreach and Scholarships

The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) conducts K-12 outreach through programs such as SWENext, which targets girls under age 18 to foster interest in engineering via clubs, mentorship, and resources aimed at building leadership and technical skills.^[55] SWENext emphasizes hands-on STEM activities and self-confidence development to prepare participants for engineering pathways, with initiatives like Introduce a Girl to Engineering exposing middle and high school students to practical engineering concepts.^[56] These efforts prioritize early aptitude cultivation rather than addressing perceived deficits, aligning with SWE's goal of gender equity through skill enhancement.^[55] At the university level, SWE provides resources including the Collegiate Leadership Institute, a year-round program for female engineering students to develop leadership competencies through targeted training and networking.^[57] Additional offerings, such as the Advance Learning Center, support professional skill-building for collegiate members, facilitating integration of engineering principles into academic curricula via workshops and peer-led activities focused on retention through aptitude reinforcement.^[58] SWE administers scholarships exclusively for women pursuing engineering, engineering technology, or computer science degrees, with awards distributed annually since the 1960s.^[59] In 2023, SWE awarded 328 scholarships totaling $1.5 million, typically ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 per recipient across undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels.^[60] ^[59] Recipients demonstrate a 95.7% STEM graduation rate, indicating strong persistence in technical majors attributable to the financial support enabling focused skill development.^[61] These scholarships have cumulatively supported thousands of students, prioritizing merit-based selection in engineering fields to bolster career readiness.^[62]

Conferences, Events, and Networking

The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) organizes its flagship annual conference, known as WE (Women in Engineering), which serves as a primary platform for professional development and networking among women engineers and allies. The first national convention occurred in 1951 in New York City, attracting 112 participants and marking the organization's initial effort to foster connections in the field.^[14] Over time, the event has expanded significantly, with WE24 held October 24-26, 2024, in Chicago drawing a record 19,100 in-person attendees from over 40 countries and featuring 472 exhibiting organizations.^[54]^[63] These conferences emphasize career advancement through targeted sessions on soft skills, such as resume building, interviewing techniques, and leadership development, alongside presentations on engineering topics. Attendees participate in over 200 workshops and interactive sessions designed to enhance employability and professional networks.^[64] A central component is the multi-day career fair, which partners with hundreds of industry employers—including firms like Dell Technologies, Honeywell, and Pfizer—to facilitate direct recruitment and mentorship opportunities.^[65]^[66] In addition to the annual WE conference, SWE hosts regional WE Local events in various global locations, providing localized networking and development opportunities for members at different career stages. These smaller-scale gatherings, such as those in cities like Dublin or Bengaluru, focus on building community ties and skill-building in accessible formats.^[67] Following the shift to virtual formats during the COVID-19 pandemic, SWE adopted hybrid models starting with WE21 in 2021, combining in-person and online access to broaden participation while maintaining interactive elements like virtual networking.^[68] This evolution has sustained high engagement, enabling broader access to sessions and fairs without geographic constraints.^[69]

Advocacy, Research, and Policy Engagement

The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) engages in public policy advocacy to promote increased funding for STEM education and workforce development, particularly targeting barriers to women's participation in engineering. SWE has supported legislation such as the STEM RESTART Act (S.662/H.R. 1447), which aims to provide grants for re-entry programs for mid-career STEM professionals, including women who have left the workforce, by prioritizing funding for small- and medium-sized businesses to facilitate job opportunities.^[70]^[71] In addition, SWE advocates for policies enhancing K-12 STEM exposure and diversity in the engineering workforce, submitting letters to Congress requesting support for re-entry initiatives grounded in addressing talent shortages.^[72]^[73] SWE conducts annual literature reviews as part of its "State of Women in Engineering" publications, synthesizing peer-reviewed studies on retention and barriers specific to engineering fields. These reviews, such as the 2024 edition analyzing 372 articles, examine empirical evidence on workplace culture as a primary retention challenge, including biases and unequal treatment, while identifying pathways like institutional reforms to improve outcomes.^[74]^[75] Earlier reviews, spanning two decades, have similarly evaluated social science data on underrepresentation, confirming factors like maternal bias and climate issues while debunking unsubstantiated claims through data aggregation.^[26] Through research collaborations, SWE assesses interventions like scholarships, finding they significantly boost women's retention in engineering and computer science degree programs by providing financial and networking support.^[62] On work policies, SWE endorses paid parental leave and flexible arrangements, citing evidence that such measures reduce departures from STEM roles and mitigate projected shortages by retaining skilled engineers, with studies estimating potential workforce gaps if unaddressed.^[76]^[70] These positions draw from productivity-focused analyses, emphasizing retention's role in sustaining engineering innovation.^[77]

Awards and Honors

Key Award Categories

The Achievement Award is the Society of Women Engineers' (SWE) highest individual honor, established in 1952 and presented annually to recognize an individual who identifies as a woman for distinguished accomplishments in engineering practice, research, or education.^[78] Criteria emphasize sustained technical innovation, leadership in advancing engineering fields, and impactful contributions that elevate professional standards, with nominations submitted by SWE members during annual cycles.^[79]^[80] The Emerging Leader Award honors early- to mid-career professionals who have demonstrated outstanding technical achievements and leadership within 10 to 15 years of entering engineering or related fields.^[81] Selection focuses on verifiable engineering innovations, firm-level leadership, and mentorship efforts that support professional development, with eligibility requiring active engagement in engineering practice and member nominations aligned with SWE's annual award timeline.^[82] The Fellow Grade recognizes senior SWE members with at least 20 years of professional experience and 10 years of membership, conferred for eminent achievements in engineering, engineering management, or technology, alongside significant contributions to advancing women in the profession through mentorship and advocacy.^[83] This status highlights long-term impact via technical leadership and organizational influence, nominated by peers and reviewed in the society's annual recognition process.^[84]

Selection Process and Notable Laureates

The selection process for SWE's principal awards, including the Achievement Award established in 1952, relies on a structured nomination system managed by dedicated committees composed of engineering professionals. Nominators must verify that candidates meet specific objectives and qualifications, submitting comprehensive packages that include formal statements, resumes, and multiple supporting letters—typically three to five—detailing verifiable technical contributions, limited to no more than two pages each.^[85]^[86] These materials are peer-reviewed against criteria emphasizing sustained, impactful advancements in engineering fields, such as innovations in design, research, or application, rather than broader advocacy efforts.^[87] The process prioritizes empirical evidence of professional excellence, with committees evaluating nominations for alignment with engineering merit, resulting in selections that have historically encountered minimal public dispute due to their focus on documented accomplishments. Since SWE's founding in 1950, hundreds of engineers have received awards across categories like Achievement, Emerging Leader, and technical distinctions, reflecting a cumulative recognition of contributions spanning aeronautics, materials science, and computational modeling.^[78] Notable laureates exemplify causal progress in core engineering domains: Kitty O'Brien Joyner advanced aeronautical infrastructure through her electrical engineering at NACA (predecessor to NASA), where she designed and managed power systems for wind tunnels that facilitated critical aerodynamic testing from 1939 onward, enabling breakthroughs in aircraft performance analysis.^[88] Gozde Ustuner, honored in 2024 for early-career impacts, contributed to sustainable energy via research optimizing hydrogen fuel cell materials and performance at Brookhaven National Laboratory, addressing efficiency barriers in clean power generation.^[89]^[88] Other exemplars include Jacqueline Chen, recipient of the 2018 Achievement Award for developing computational models that simulate turbulent combustion processes, aiding advancements in efficient engine design and emissions reduction.^[78] Thea Feyereisen, awarded in 2023, drove propulsion system innovations at Honeywell Aerospace, including fault-tolerant controls that enhanced aircraft safety and reliability in commercial aviation.^[90] These selections underscore SWE's emphasis on individuals whose technical work directly influenced infrastructural, computational, and energy innovations, independent of gender-specific narratives.^[91]

Impact and Empirical Assessment

Trends in Female Representation in Engineering

In the United States, women's representation in the engineering workforce was negligible prior to 1950, comprising less than 1% of engineers. By 1993, this had risen to approximately 10%, increasing to 15% by 2015 according to National Science Foundation data. As of 2023, women accounted for 16% of engineers and architects per Bureau of Labor Statistics figures.^[92] Among engineering degree recipients, women earned 19% of bachelor's degrees in the field in the early 2000s, rising modestly to 23% by the late 2010s, per National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics reports. Representation differs by sector: women hold about 22% of engineering positions in universities and four-year colleges, compared to roughly 15% in industry settings. Doctoral degrees in engineering awarded to women remain low in absolute numbers, at around 2,700 annually in 2018, though their share has increased slightly over time.^[93] Post-2000, growth in women's engineering workforce share has stagnated, with only marginal gains from the 10-15% range in prior decades to 16% by the 2020s, despite broader expansions in the overall STEM labor force. Subfield variations persist, with higher female participation in areas like chemical engineering relative to mechanical or electrical engineering.^[94] Globally, women represent about 16.5% of engineers as of recent estimates. Proportions vary significantly by country: graduates exceed 40% female in nations including Algeria, Bangladesh, Morocco, and Poland, while EU-wide scientists and engineers include 41% women, ranging from 53% in Denmark to lower figures elsewhere. In contrast, Muslim-majority countries like Tunisia and Malaysia show closing gaps in engineering enrollment, though workforce integration differs.^[95]^[96]^[97]

Causal Analysis of Contributing Factors

Empirical analyses of gender representation in engineering reveal persistent disparities rooted in cognitive and interest differences observable across cultures and time. Meta-analyses consistently demonstrate that males exhibit superior performance in spatial reasoning tasks critical to engineering, such as mental rotation (effect size d ≈ 0.6) and spatial perception (d ≈ 0.44), with these gaps emerging by elementary school and persisting into adulthood.^[98]^[99] The greater male variability hypothesis further explains overrepresentation of males at the high end of ability distributions relevant to engineering; variances in mathematical and quantitative skills are 12-15% larger among males, leading to more men in the upper tails despite similar means.^[100]^[101] These patterns hold internationally, challenging socialization-only explanations and aligning with evolutionary accounts of sex-differentiated cognitive profiles shaped by ancestral selection pressures for spatial navigation and tool use in males.^[102] Vocational interests also diverge systematically, with females gravitating toward people-oriented domains like biology and social sciences, while males prefer thing-oriented fields such as engineering and physics; longitudinal tracking of career trajectories confirms women are less likely to enter or persist in mechanical and technical majors absent external incentives.^[103] Evolutionary psychological models posit these preferences as adaptive outcomes of sex differences in mating strategies and parental investment, where females prioritize relational and caregiving roles, yielding robust occupational segregation even in gender-egalitarian societies.^[104] The "free-choice" framework critiques leaky pipeline narratives by emphasizing voluntary selection over systemic barriers, as evidenced by stable interest gaps predating occupational entry and unaffected by interventions targeting perceived stereotypes.^[105] Post-Title IX data indicate minimal widespread hiring discrimination when qualifications are controlled; audit studies in engineering show women receiving callbacks at rates equal to or exceeding men's (e.g., 2:1 advantage in some STEM subfields), suggesting credentials, not bias, drive outcomes.^[106] Lifestyle trade-offs compound these factors: engineering demands extended hours (often 50+ weekly) incompatible with family formation priorities, where women disproportionately value work-life balance and child-rearing, leading to higher attrition rates post-childbirth independent of discrimination.^[107] This causal chain—from innate variances and preferences to deliberate choices—accounts for underrepresentation more parsimoniously than discrimination-centric models, which often rely on anecdotal or confounded evidence from biased institutional sources.^[108]

Measured Outcomes of SWE Initiatives

Internal evaluations of SWE's scholarship programs indicate high persistence rates among recipients. A study of 359 undergraduate SWE scholarship recipients from 2017 to 2023 found that 87.7% either earned or were still pursuing a STEM degree as of Fall 2023, with 84.7% focused on engineering or computer science fields; this outperforms the national average retention rate of 48% for women entering STEM bachelor's programs.^[109]^[110] SWE member surveys highlight benefits from networking and professional development initiatives. In fiscal year 2021, networking ranked as the top reason for joining among 47% of members, with 63% of new U.S. members citing relationship-building as a primary goal and 76% expressing likelihood to engage in such events; professional development, including soft skills training, was valued by 33% of new members, and 42% sought career advancement through SWE resources.^[111] These self-reported outcomes suggest linkages to career starts and satisfaction, though surveys rely on participant perceptions rather than longitudinal tracking. Assessing SWE's broader systemic impact faces challenges in causal attribution, as no large-scale randomized controlled trials exist to isolate effects from confounding factors like economic booms in technology or general rises in female college enrollment. While individual-level data show member retention advantages, aggregate female representation in U.S. engineering occupations grew modestly from 3% in 1970 to 15% in 2019, despite over seven decades of gender equity efforts including those by SWE.^[112] Reviews of gender equity initiatives, encompassing programs akin to SWE's, report mixed evidence: some correlate with localized representation gains, but others highlight persistent barriers and question efficacy without rigorous controls for selection bias or external trends.^[113] Thus, while internal metrics demonstrate targeted benefits, definitive proof of organization-wide causal influence on industry demographics remains limited by methodological constraints.

Criticisms, Controversies, and Alternative Viewpoints

Efficacy and Necessity of Gender-Specific Advocacy

Critics of gender-specific organizations like the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) contend that, although such groups provide supportive environments fostering mentorship and confidence among female members, they risk perpetuating segregation by channeling women into parallel networks separate from the predominantly male engineering mainstream, potentially limiting exposure to diverse professional interactions crucial for career advancement.^[114] Empirical assessments of retention reveal mixed outcomes; women-only affinity groups may offer short-term psychological benefits, but comparative data on long-term persistence versus integrated co-educational engineering societies indicate no consistent superiority, with some analyses suggesting that broad-based professional engineering organizations yield equivalent or better integration into industry networks.^[115] In meritocratic disciplines such as engineering, where technical competence objectively determines value, proponents of integrated approaches argue that gender-targeted advocacy is superfluous, as hiring processes often exhibit neutrality or even preferential treatment toward women. A large-scale national experiment involving STEM faculty evaluations found a 2:1 preference for female over male candidates with identical qualifications for tenure-track positions, challenging claims of pervasive anti-female bias that necessitate women-only interventions. Historical patterns further support this view: female entry into engineering surged during periods of acute economic and labor demands, such as World War II, when national defense imperatives led to targeted training programs admitting women to previously male-only engineering schools in 1942, rather than through contemporaneous advocacy organizations.^[116] Comparable identity-focused engineering societies, such as the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), demonstrate success in elevating underrepresented groups—including Black women, who comprised 26.3% of African American engineering bachelor's recipients in 2011—without a gender-exclusive mandate, relying instead on culturally tailored but inclusive strategies that promote retention and professional development across demographics.^[117] This parallels evidence from university-level interventions, where women-specific retention initiatives improved freshman-to-sophomore persistence from 52% to 73% over five years (2003–2007), yet male retention in general programs remained stably higher at around 75%, implying that gender-neutral systemic enhancements might achieve similar gains without segregation.^[118] In zero-sum hiring contexts, exclusive advocacy risks eliciting backlash by fostering perceptions of diluted merit standards, potentially eroding trust in engineering's competence-driven ethos.^[119]

Debates on Merit, Quotas, and Reverse Discrimination

The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) endorses affirmative action (AA) policies to counteract historical and persistent barriers for women in STEM, positing that such measures expand the talent pool by ensuring equal opportunity rather than imposing strict numerical targets.^[24] Supporters argue AA addresses systemic exclusion, with evidence from pre-ban eras showing elevated minority entry into STEM fields at selective institutions, potentially applicable to gender via analogous recruitment efforts that boost initial female enrollment in engineering programs by 10-20% in targeted initiatives.^[120] These advocates contend short-term diversity gains at entry levels foster long-term cultural shifts, though SWE explicitly avoids endorsing quotas, framing its advocacy as promoting inclusion to leverage women's contributions without diluting standards.^[24] Critics maintain that diversity mandates, even implicit ones, erode meritocracy by prioritizing demographic outcomes over qualifications, leading to reverse discrimination claims among non-preferred groups. Engineering workplace surveys reveal sentiments of hiring women "at nearly any price," with older male engineers reporting significant reverse discrimination due to aggressive diversity targets.^[121] Mismatch theory, originally applied to racial AA but extended to gender in STEM critiques, posits that admitting or hiring candidates below rigorous thresholds—common in high-stakes engineering—results in higher dropout rates, diminished self-efficacy, and underperformance, as underprepared individuals struggle in elite environments like top universities or firms.^[122] This perspective holds that such practices harm beneficiaries' confidence and overall field quality, with empirical data from AA bans indicating reduced minority STEM persistence at mismatched elite schools but potentially better matches elsewhere.^[123] Philosophical tensions arise from engineering's entrenched meritocratic ethos, where women engineers often internalize individualism and reject bias narratives, viewing group-based advocacy as antithetical to objective selection.^[124] The 2017 Google memo by engineer James Damore exemplified these clashes, arguing biological interest differences—not discrimination—explain gender gaps in tech/engineering, and that diversity training assumes a false meritocracy while stifling viewpoint diversity; his termination ignited debates on whether corporate inclusion efforts suppress dissent and prioritize equity over excellence.^[125] Empirical outcomes remain mixed: gender diversity correlates with enhanced innovation in some firm-level studies, yet quota-like interventions show short-term representation spikes without consistent long-term performance gains, and may provoke backlash reducing overall productivity.^[126] The 2023 Supreme Court ruling against race-based AA has amplified scrutiny of analogous gender preferences, prompting legal challenges to diversity programs despite SWE's emphasis on lawful inclusion over quotas.^[127]

Internal Divisions and Broader Societal Critiques

Within the Society of Women Engineers, tensions have emerged over the organization's expanding emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives amid broader institutional pushback. In 2025, executive orders targeting DEI programs prompted the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to disband its SWE student club, alongside other affinity groups, citing compliance with directives against perceived discriminatory practices.^[128] SWE leadership responded by affirming support for affected chapters and critiquing such policies as detrimental to women's professional networks, highlighting a rift between the group's advocacy for inclusive programming and external conservative pressures to refocus on merit-based, career-centric activities.^[129] External critiques from conservative and libertarian perspectives contend that organizations like SWE contribute to normalizing lower performance expectations for women in engineering by attributing persistent gender gaps primarily to external barriers rather than differential aptitudes and interests. Meta-analyses of vocational interests reveal consistent sex differences, with males exhibiting stronger preferences for inorganic, system-oriented domains such as engineering, while females favor organic, people-oriented fields; these patterns hold across cultures and predict occupational choices more robustly than socialization alone. Such evidence suggests that advocacy emphasizing discrimination overlooks biological and psychological factors, potentially fostering a narrative of inherent disadvantage that discourages rigorous self-assessment and perpetuates dependency on remedial supports.^[130] In the 2020s, this viewpoint gained traction amid societal reevaluation of gender essentialism in STEM, with commentators arguing that gender-specific societies like SWE incur opportunity costs by diverting resources from universal engineering professionalization efforts. While SWE's networking and mentorship have demonstrably aided retention—evidenced by its role in sustaining female membership amid stagnant representation (around 15-20% in engineering professions since the 2000s)—critics highlight that parallel investments in co-ed organizations could yield broader efficiency without segmenting talent pools or implying subgroup inferiority. These debates underscore a trade-off: SWE's targeted successes in visibility and support versus the risk of entrenching segregated expectations in a field where empirical aptitude distributions show greater male variance at high ends, correlating with innovation-heavy roles.^[106]

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[3]
The History of Software Engineering | Institute of Data
Sep 28, 2023 · The concept of software engineering emerged in the late 1960s, with the recognition that computer programming required a disciplined approach.
[4]
Evolution of Software Engineering: From an Art To ... - GeeksforGeeks
Jul 23, 2025 · In 1968, a conference on software engineering was held, and the term "software engineering" was officially coined. In the following decades, ...Evolution of Software... · Is Software Engineering A... · Software Engineering...
[5]
Principles of Software Engineering
Principles of Software Engineering · Separation of Concerns · Modularity · Abstraction · Anticipation of Change · Generality · Incremental Development · Consistency.
[6]
Introduction to Software Engineering - GeeksforGeeks
Aug 25, 2025 · Key Principles of Software Engineering. Modularity: Breaking the software into smaller, reusable components that can be developed and tested ...
[7]
Top 4 Software Engineering Challenges - Docker
Dec 13, 2024 · Top 4 software engineering challenges developers face · 1. Dependency management · 2. Testing complexities · 3. Lack of visibility and ...
[8]
What are the biggest problems faced by IT / Software Development ...
Apr 5, 2023 · 1. Talent shortage and retention: Rapid industry growth, insufficient education, high expectations. Solutions: Training & education, focus on work environment ...
[9]
10 Controversial Software Engineering Topics With No Clear Answer
Sep 22, 2022 · This one is a portal topic, that opens up the door to many tangential conversations around architecture, cost-benefit analysis, documentation, ...
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Rosie the Riveter Delivered Miracles During WWII - USO
May 22, 2012 · The miracle would not have happened without “Rosie the Riveter.” In real life, Rosie was women like Norma Cutting, a crane operator who worked 60 feet above a ...
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Historic Rejection Letters to Women Engineers - The Atlantic
May 23, 2017 · It would be decades before the Society of Women Engineers was founded—first as an informal group during World War II, then officially in 1950.<|separator|>
[12]
History of the Women's Engineering Society
The WES was founded in 1919 to promote the study of engineering and for women working in the industry to meet and provide support.Missing: antecedents 1950
[13]
Uncovering the History of the First Women P.E.s
Research identified 48 women P.E.s, with 51 total in the US and territories. Some early P.E.s include Anne Gertrude Garrell Adams (1923) and Dorothy Allison ...Missing: antecedents | Show results with:antecedents
[14]
75th Anniversary Timeline - Society of Women Engineers - SWE
1952. Josephine Lovett of Montreal becomes the Society's first international member, before the Society even has a section west of the Mississippi River.Missing: antecedents | Show results with:antecedents
[15]
Building a Legacy - Society of Women Engineers - SWE
More than 60 women engineers and students gathered on May 27, 1950, hoping to create a unified national organization supporting and advancing women in.Missing: antecedents | Show results with:antecedents
[16]
SWE Stories, Tales from the Founders' Families - All Together
Jan 26, 2021 · Forming one unified Society of Women Engineers in the spring of 1950, their combined efforts helped create educational pathways for future women engineers.Missing: antecedents pre-
[17]
If We Exist Through the Formative Years … - SWE
The Society of Women Engineers' founders accomplished many things by the end of the Society's founding meeting held May 27-28, 1950. They joined independent.
[18]
Empowering Female Engineers: Dive into SWE's Mission & Vision
1952, SWE becomes incorporated as a non-profit educational service organization. 1953, SWE becomes truly “national,” as the Los Angeles section is chartered ...Board of Directors · Senate · Headquarters Staff · Board of Trustees
[19]
Guide to the Society of Women Engineers Publications LR002487
Jan 17, 2014 · It was first published in 1951 as the Journal of the Society of Women Engineers and included both technical articles and society news. The fifth ...<|separator|>
[20]
[PDF] Employment Opportunities for Women in Professional Engineering
Because the SWE had a membership of only 300 or so at that time, it was considered useful to add to the canvass of members an additional 300 on the SWE mailing.
[21]
Women Engineers (from SWE's History) You Should Know
Hilda Counts Edgecomb and Lou Alta Melton, engineering students at the University of Colorado Boulder, co-founded the short-lived American Society of Women ...Missing: antecedents | Show results with:antecedents
[22]
SWE's Rocky Beginnings With Title IX - Society of Women Engineers
Part of the Education Amendments of 1972, Title IX prohibits educational institutions receiving federal funds from discriminating on the basis of sex.Missing: impact chapters
[23]
Why Don't American Women Stay in Engineering?
From the early 1970s to the mid-1980s, the percentage of women earning bachelor's degrees from U.S. engineering schools rose from 0.8% in 1971 to 14.8% in 1985, ...Missing: 1990 | Show results with:1990
[24]
[PDF] SWE-General-Position-on-Equal-Opportunity-and-Affirmative-Action ...
The Society of Women Engineers supports policies and legislation that strengthen the U.S. STEM workforce by ensuring equal opportunity for women in STEM ...Missing: 1980s | Show results with:1980s
[25]
A Reversal of Hiring Fortunes - Society of Women Engineers - SWE
While the job market did improve for women engineers, affirmative action and the EEOC were not a panacea. “There is a great demand for women engineers, so the ...Missing: 1980s | Show results with:1980s
[26]
Women in Engineering: Analyzing 20 Years of Social Science ... - SWE
A bit less encouragingly, however, the most significant increases occurred in the 1970s and 1980s; since 1990, women's share of engineering degrees has grown, ...
[27]
[PDF] A National Survey of Women and Men Engineers - SWE
1993 by the Society of Women Engineers. ... As recently as the early 1970's, less than one percent of the engineering graduates each year in the U.S. were women.
[28]
[PDF] The Society of Women Engineers National Survey about ... - SWE
The SWE survey, conducted by Harris Polls, aimed to examine if women are more or less likely than men to be retained in engineering after college.
[29]
[PDF] 2002 Annual Report - Society of Women Engineers
Work Life Balance Award. The Work Life Balance Award honors an individual who has demonstrated leadership and initiative in establishing a land- mark program ...
[30]
Professional Development - Society of Women Engineers - SWE
SWE's Leadership Competency Model was created and launched in 2010 to serve as the backbone of SWE's leadership development programming for current and future ...
[31]
America Needs More Women Engineers - All Together
Jul 5, 2017 · SWE's membership includes 35,000 women engineers. SWE works to increase the number of women employed in engineering through its pathway of ...
[32]
[PDF] ENGINEERING BY THE NUMBERS - IRA | ASEE
Jul 15, 2019 · Hispanic graduates earned 8.8% of master's degrees and. 6.0% of doctoral degrees. ENGINEERING DEGREES EARNED BY WOMEN. Women earned 21.9 % of ...
[33]
About SWE | Society of Women Engineers - West Virginia University
Dec 18, 2015 · SWE Objectives (Adopted in 1950) · Inform young women, their parents, counselors, and the general public, of the qualifications and achievements ...Missing: original | Show results with:original<|control11|><|separator|>
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[PDF] bylaws - SWE
Jun 30, 2025 · BYLAWS. 2. 3. 4. ARTICLE I – NAME AND OBJECTIVES. 5. Section 1. Name. 6. The name of this organization is the Society of Women Engineers, ...
[35]
Building a Legacy - Society of Women Engineers - SWE
More than 60 women and students gathered on May 27, 1950, hoping to create a unified, national organization supporting and advancing women in engineering.
[36]
Exploring SWE Leadership: A History of Diversity & Innovation
Inaas Darrat. President ; Kerrie L. Greenfelder. President Elect ; Silvia Karlsson, P.E., F.SWE. Treasurer ; Genevieve A. Kane. Secretary ; Dianne Beever. Director.
[37]
Senate - Society of Women Engineers - SWE
The SWE Senate is the strategic body of the society that advises the Board of Directors and the membership on strategic issues that advance the mission and.Missing: structure | Show results with:structure
[38]
Overview of SWE's Board of Trustees and their Role in Fund ...
Board of Trustees ; Deb Stromberg. Chair ; Holly Teig. Treasurer ; Paula McDonald. Secretary ; Heather Doty. Trustee ; Janis Mantini. Trustee.Missing: structure | Show results with:structure
[39]
[PDF] SWE Governing Structure
SWE Governing Structure. Board of Directors. Board of Trustees. Endowment. SWE-EFI. Reserve Fund. Headquarters. Fund. Headquarters. SWE Operations.Missing: organizational | Show results with:organizational
[40]
[PDF] 2001 Annual Report - Society of Women Engineers
On March 15, 2001, the New York office was closed, and by March 23, 2001, SWE's files and functions were moved to the new Headquarters in Chicago. ... from that ...Missing: relocated | Show results with:relocated
[41]
Nominating Directorate - Society of Women Engineers - SWE
The Society Nominating Directorate is responsible for developing a slate of candidates for open positions on the Board of Directors and the Board of ...
[42]
[PDF] Nomination Application for Society Elected Leadership Positions
Aug 18, 2025 · Article IV Board of Directors – Section 4. A. Candidates for all elected positions, except, collegiate director, and special directors, must be ...
[43]
Society Of Women Engineers - Nonprofit Explorer - ProPublica
$$11,454. Net Income. $10,241. Net Assets. $155,734. Notable Sources of Revenue, Percent of Total Revenue ... fiscal year since 2016. These audits are copied from ...Missing: structure | Show results with:structure
[44]
Understanding the Role of the Audit Committee in SWE
The Audit Committee oversees the annual audit of the Society's financial reports. They are responsible for selecting an auditor, ensuring HQ provides the.Missing: nonprofit structure revenue
[45]
[PDF] SOCIETY OF WOMEN ENGINEERS ENDOWMENT FUND, INC ...
We have audited the accompanying financial statements of Society of Women Engineers Endowment. Fund, Inc. which comprise the statement of financial position as ...Missing: nonprofit structure
[46]
[PDF] Legal Entity Finance Manual - SWE
Dec 23, 2021 · Note that an audit may only be conducted by a paid auditor. SWE entities are encouraged to establish a fiscal year budget policy which defines ...
[47]
[PDF] 2024 DEI&B Annual Report - SWE
Oct 10, 2024 · In FY24, the Society of Women Engineers observed significant membership growth, with total numbers rising from 43,357 in FY23 to 47,059, marking ...
[48]
Join SWE - Society of Women Engineers
### Membership Summary
[49]
[PDF] FY20 Membership Statistics | SWE
FY20 Membership Statistics. At the conclusion of each membership recruitment ... • 76.95% Female. • 21.54% Prefer Not To Answer. • 1.51% Male. Discipline ...
[50]
[PDF] FY24 Membership Statistics.docx - SWE
The information provided highlights the process and timeline of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) membership statistics for the fiscal year 2024 (FY24).
[51]
U.S. Employment - Society of Women Engineers - SWE
As of 2023, White women represented 9.1% of the engineering workforce, and Asian women represented 4.8%. On the other hand, Hispanic or Latina women ...
[52]
Section & Affiliate Map - Society of Women Engineers - SWE
Sections and Affiliates are a great way to get connected with SWE members, participate in events, and volunteer in leadership positions locally. If you are a ...Missing: early | Show results with:early
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Section & Affiliate Start Up - Society of Women Engineers - SWE
Professionals or collegians interested in starting a Section or Affiliate in the United States should fill out this form and reach out to membership@swe.org.
[54]
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Dec 20, 2024 · SWE reached record breaking numbers, ending the year at more than 47,000 members. During 2024, SWE grew by 35 new affiliates and sections ...
[55]
Student Programs K-12 - SWE
The long-term goal of SWE's K-12 Outreach programming is to open pathways for girls to become engineers and create gender equity in the field. The SWENext ...
[56]
K-12 Archives - Society of Women Engineers - SWE
IIBI exposes middle and high school girls to engineering hands-on activities and offers programming for educators and parents.
[57]
CLI and Me: A Blueprint for Bold Leadership - All Together - SWE
Jun 13, 2025 · The SWE Collegiate Leadership Institute (CLI) is a year-round program dedicated to identifying, supporting, and better preparing female ...
[58]
SWE Programs and Resources - Society of Women Engineers
SWE offers programs like SWENext for girls, scholarships, the Collegiate Leadership Institute, the Advance Learning Center, and the STEM Re-entry Task Force.
[59]
Scholarships - Society of Women Engineers - SWE
Yearly or Endowed Since the 1950s, SWE has been supporting the aspirations of women to pursue engineering careers through scholarships.
[60]
College Scholarship Statistics [2025]: Yearly Total + Analysis
Nov 3, 2024 · In 2023, the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) awarded 328 scholarships. Those scholarships amounted to $1,500,000. In 2003, the average ...Missing: retention | Show results with:retention
[61]
INVEST IN IMPACT: SWE SCHOLARSHIPS
SWE scholarship had a STEM graduation rate of 95.7%.” SWE Research, 2024. ROI for Sponsors: Every scholarship dollar invested improves STEM degree ...Missing: distributed | Show results with:distributed
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The Impact of SWE Scholarships on Retention in Engineering ...
SWE scholarships have a significant impact on women's retention in engineering and technology degree programs!Missing: distributed | Show results with:distributed
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Society of Women Engineers WE24 - Shepard Event Services
WE24 drew over 19,000 attendees from more than 40 countries, marking a 192% increase since we first partnered with SWE in 2008. Let's take a closer look at some ...
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Conference Partnerships & Recruitment Services - SWE
SWE's conference includes a career fair, dynamic keynote speakers, numerous networking opportunities and 200+ workshops and presentations.
[65]
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The two-day career fair drew shoulder-to-shoulder crowds eyeing organizations such as Yahoo, Dell Technologies, Honeywell, Pfizer, and Women in Rail as well as ...
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SWE Conference 2024 | Yale Society of Women Engineers
Nov 5, 2024 · Attending the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) annual conference, WE24, from October 24 to 26, 2024, in Chicago, Illinois, was an inspiring ...
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Join WE Local 2025: Empowering Women Engineers ... - SWE
WE Local in Dublin, Ireland, will bring together women and allies in engineering and technology for professional development and networking in a city known for ...WE Local Locations · About · Partner · Resources
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The success of WE20's virtual format provided a solid foundation for this year's hybrid conference, the first in the Society of Women Engineers' history.Missing: post- | Show results with:post-
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Conference Connections - Society of Women Engineers - SWE
Attendance has grown, from 112 at the first convention in 1951 to more than 20,000 participants in person and online at WE24. ... SWE held its first annual ...
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Advocacy Is Key to Advancing Our Mission - SWE
This includes advocating policies that endorse work/life balance, such as flexible work arrangements and parental leave. ... STEM RESTART Act (S.662/H.R. ...Missing: lobbying | Show results with:lobbying
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SWE Urges Federal Legislation Benefiting Women in STEM
The measure would prioritize funding to small- and medium-size businesses so they could offer jobs to midcareer professionals who had left the STEM workforce.Missing: lobbying parental
[72]
SWE's Letter to Congress Requests Support for Women in STEM
SWE supports policies that encourage businesses and federal agencies to assist STEM professionals in re-entering the workforce, particularly women and ...Missing: parental leave
[73]
SWE Public Policy Update: The 118th U.S. Congress
Jan 31, 2024 · SWE's policy priorities continue to include the importance of supporting early exposure to STEM fields in K-12 education, the need for a more diverse STEM ...
[74]
Women in Engineering and STEM: A Review of the 2024 Literature
An analysis of the social science literature published in 2024 on women in STEM highlights the persistent influence of systemic barriers.
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Women in Engineering and STEM: A Review of the 2023 Literature
This review is based on 372 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings that relate to girls and women in engineering and STEM more broadly.Missing: lobbying | Show results with:lobbying
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[PDF] Paid Family Leave to Strengthen the STEM Workforce
Preventing the departure of women from the STEM workforce by investing in parental leave policies could help mitigate potential shortages in STEM-related jobs.<|control11|><|separator|>
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Paid Family Leave Can Strengthen the STEM Field by ...
May 21, 2021 · The legislation further requires that such grants be flexible to accommodate for caregiving needs, including extensions and supplemental funding ...
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SWE Awards - Engineering and Technology History Wiki
Oct 20, 2024 · The SWE Achievement award is the highest award given by the Society of Women Engineers. It is presented annually to a woman engineer for outstanding ...
[79]
SWE Awards Program - Society of Women Engineers
Nance Dicciani. Distinguished Engineering Educator Dr. Margaret R. Taber. Fellow Eleanor Baum ... Fellow Betty Lou Bailey. Fellow Yvonne C. Brill. Fellow Clara M.
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Award Guide - Society of Women Engineers - Studylib
INDIVIDUAL AWARDS Achievement Award The Achievement Award is the highest award given by the Society of Women Engineers. It is presented annually to a woman ...
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[PDF] SWE Awards Program - Society of Women Engineers
The nominee must: ○ Have ten (10) to fifteen (15) years of experience in the fields of engineering, engineering management, engineering education, engineering ...
[82]
The Society of Women Engineers Announces Annual Award Winners
The Society of Women Engineers Announces Annual Award Winners. In: Article ... Achievement Award – The highest award given by SWE, bestowed for an ...
[83]
[PDF] SWE Awards Program - Society of Women Engineers
Dec 31, 2023 · The Society of Women Engineers strives to recognize the ... The Fellow Grade honors a SWE member with at least twenty (20) years ...
[84]
Individual Awards Packet - Society of Women Engineers - Studylib
Individual Awards Packet - Society of Women Engineers. advertisement. Society of Women Engineers ... Fellow Grade The Fellow Grade is an honor conferred on SWE ...
[85]
[PDF] The Society of Women Engineers - SWE
Only applicable for the Fellow Grade and Distinguished Service Awards. ... Verify that the candidate meets the Objective and. Qualification requirements.
[86]
[PDF] SWE Awards Program - Society of Women Engineers
Nominator's responsibilities include: o Use this Award Guide to select the award that best suits the candidate. o Verify that the candidate meets the Objective ...
[87]
[PDF] FY23 Individual Awards Training - SWE
Use this Award Guide to select the award that best suits the candidate. Verify that the candidate meets the Objective and. Qualification requirements. Collect ...
[88]
Women Engineers You Should Know — 2024 - SWE
The expression “trailblazer” might have been coined to describe Kitty O'Brien Joyner. In 1939, she was the first woman to earn an engineering degree from the ...
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Gozde Ustuner, PhD'17, '24 | Stony Brook 40 Under Forty
Research focused on optimizing fuel cell technology, developing new materials for hydrogen fuel cells. Vice President of Society of Women Engineers (SWE) New ...
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Congratulations to the 2023 Award Recipients - SWE
Congratulations to the 2023 Award Recipients by SWE Magazine. Achievement Award, Thea Feyereisen, Honeywell Aerospace, Suzanne Jenniches, Upward Mobility Award.
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2024 SWE Awards Recipients Recognized for Driving Progress and ...
Aug 15, 2024 · Outstanding Collegiate Member Award · Abigail Ahn, University of Michigan · Anagha Atawale, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign · Allison ...Distinguished Service Award · Distinguished New Engineer... · Engaged Ally AwardMissing: notable | Show results with:notable
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Nov 14, 2024 · According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, women made up roughly 16 percent of engineers and architects in 2023.Missing: NSF | Show results with:NSF
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A Closer Look at the Data - Society of Women Engineers - SWE
The highest percentage of women in engineering is found in universities and four-year colleges (around 22%), while the lowest is in business or industry (around ...<|separator|>
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More Women in Engineering Now Than Ever Before - MDPI Blog
Jun 23, 2022 · In 2022, the percentage of female engineers increased to 14.5% in the UK and 17% in the USA (2019-2021). Globally, 16.5% of engineers are women.
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Closing the gender gap: Mapping the proportion of female ...
Apr 19, 2023 · Countries including Algeria, Bangladesh, Morocco and Poland had more than 40 per cent of women as engineering graduates. The research found just ...
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41% of people employed as scientists and engineers are women
Feb 12, 2024 · Among the EU countries, the proportion of female scientists and engineers varied widely in 2022, ranging from 53% in Denmark, Lithuania (52%) ...
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Importance of accurately measuring spatial abilities - PNAS
Large metaanalyses have shown men to outperform women repeatedly on mental rotation (d = 0.56–0.73) and spatial perception (d = 0.44) tasks (2, 3). However, few ...
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Gender differences in spatial aptitude are well established by adulthood, particularly when measured by tasks that require the mental rotation of objects ...
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The hypothesis that the variability of intellectual abilities is greater among males than females was originally proposed by Ellis in 1894 to explain a ...
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Sex differences in variability across nations in reading, mathematics ...
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Sep 4, 2017 · We explore the Greater Male Variability Hypothesis – the idea that men vary more than women on a variety of abilities, interests, & traits.
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[PDF] Why Are Some STEM Fields More Gender Balanced Than Others?
Gender gaps in STEM fields are due to masculine cultures, lack of early experience, and gender gaps in self-efficacy. For example, women are underrepresented ...
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Sex and Care: The Evolutionary Psychological Explanations for Sex ...
Apr 16, 2019 · The present article elucidates sex differences in terms of formal care occupational choices and care styles based on evolutionary psychological perspectives.
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Agent-based models of the cultural evolution of occupational gender ...
Jun 28, 2023 · Some authors suggest that where women have social and political equality with men, they are free to choose career paths in line with their ...
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Gender in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
Today, U.S. women earn 57% of bachelor's degrees overall and 50% of bachelor's degrees in STEM (National Science Foundation, 2018). Gender parity is now ...
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[PDF] WHY WOMEN LEAVE ENGINEERING - Department of Energy
We also examined two types of workplace related barriers that could impact their levels of satisfaction as well as thoughts of leaving: workplace climate ...
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Sex Differences in Occupational Attainment are Here to Stay - Quillette
Nov 2, 2020 · From an evolutionary perspective, the sex differences in work-life trade-offs and in career outcomes follow seamlessly from the historical ...
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[PDF] The Role of STEM Society Scholarships in Supporting the Retention ...
This research explores the educational pathways SWE scholarship recipients take and whether their scholarships influence their persistence and degree completion ...Missing: distributed | Show results with:distributed
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https://swe.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/ASEE_NSC_FINAL_May_1_2024.docx.pdf
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[PDF] The Society of Women Engineers - All Together - SWE
Networking, professional development and education consistently emerged as important benefits for members. 6. New: Although cost remained a major reason for not.
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Women Making Gains in STEM Occupations but Still ...
Jan 26, 2021 · While women make up nearly half of the U.S. workforce, they are only 27% of STEM workers, up from 8% in 1970.Missing: 1980 | Show results with:1980
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(PDF) Examining the Effectiveness of Gender Equity Initiatives to ...
Mar 7, 2023 · While some studies indicate GEDI lead to an increase in women's representation, a widely examined measure of their efficacy, other research ...
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(PDF) Segregation, Stereotypes, and STEM - ResearchGate
We offer an illustrative catalog of stereotypes that support women's STEM-avoidance and men's STEM-affinity, and we conclude with some thoughts on policy ...
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[PDF] Are Women Affinity Groups Enough to Solve the Retention Problem ...
Women Affinity Groups (WAGs) are the most prevalent diversity and inclusion (D&I) intervention method utilized in the Information Technology industry.<|separator|>
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[PDF] african-american women in engineering - SWE
Intervention research often covers lack of family support, poor academic preparation, and low test scores; suggestions focus on fixing what is broken about ...
[117]
[PDF] An Analysis of Retention Programs for Female Students in ...
Abstract. This paper summarizes the findings of a five-year study aimed at improving the retention rates of female students pursuing careers in engineering.<|separator|>
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The 5 Biases Pushing Women Out of STEM
Mar 24, 2015 · Another theory is that women are choosing to forgo careers in STEM to attain better work-family balance—rather than being pushed out by bias.
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[PDF] Does Affirmative Action Lead to “Mismatch”? A Review of the Evidence
209, however, found that banning affirmative action in California reduced the number of minority STEM graduates; during affirmative action, not only did ...
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[PDF] GENDER AND RACIAL BIAS IN ENGINEERING? - SWE
We simply asked engineers what they have personally experienced in their careers and compared the answers of women and engineers of color to white men. The ...
[121]
Minority Students and Research Universities: How to Overcome the ...
Mar 27, 2009 · Called the "mismatch" theory, it suggests that underrepresented minority students are more likely to leave science, math, and engineering when, ...
[122]
A STEM Penalty from Affirmative Action Bans?
Jul 18, 2023 · The study investigates a tension between affirmative action scholars who hypothesize that affirmative action bans would increase underrepresented minority ...
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[PDF] “I am Not a Feminist, but. . .”: Hegemony of a Meritocratic Ideology ...
Abstract. Engineering is often described as an enduring bastion of masculine culture where women experience marginality. Using diaries from undergraduate.
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[PDF] Google's Ideological Echo Chamber
Google's Ideological Echo Chamber. How bias clouds our thinking about diversity and inclusion go/pc-considered-harmful. James Damore - damore@. July 2017. Feel ...
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Women in IS: A Reflection on Diversity and Inclusion
Jun 30, 2025 · Despite numerous studies, empirical evidence regarding the impact of gender diversity on a firm's performance remains mixed. While some research ...
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Does Affirmative Action Lead to “Mismatch”? - Manhattan Institute
Jul 7, 2022 · The Mismatch Theory. Everyone clamors to get in to the best, most selective, colleges. So why might we expect some students to do worse there?
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West Point Bans Student Clubs After Trump D.E.I. Executive Order
Feb 7, 2025 · The conservative majority in the Supreme Court found that ... Society of Women Engineers. Ms. Shannon said she was devastated when ...
[128]
SWE Stands With Collegiate Sections, Affiliates Impacted by DEI Bans
Apr 18, 2025 · These directives have led to the reduction or elimination of DEI offices, event restrictions, and even efforts to disband student groups focused ...
[129]
Gender Gap in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics ...
Females are underrepresented in math-intensive STEM fields, with 43% of degrees in math/statistics compared to 59% in biological sciences.