Why aren't there more women studying technical disciplines?

Question

By technical disciplines, I mean science majors, engineering, mathematics, et cetera.

In my school of engineering, there are 140 women studying electrical and 730 men studying the same. Mechanical has 870 men and 108 women. Civil has 331 and 98 women. These are a few statistics to show some of the skew in numbers.

Answer 1

Most of my female friends studied technical disciplines. All of them were pretty sure they were following their dreams and indeed were very good at what they were studying. None of them expected, however, that they would have to put up with much lower salary while working twice as hard as men.
I'm talking about young women - 25-30years old.

Answer 2

This is really a complex question! Historically women were not hired/schooled in the technical field because it was thought that we didn't have the brain capacity to fully understand the complexities of math and science. We were also thought not to be "long time" employees, because we would give up our careers to get married, have babies and raise families. It then became the norm that women were directed to "pink collar" jobs, where they didn't require much training and we were easily replaced when we left the work force.

Today there are still a lot of women who are guided (sometimes unconsciously) into "pink collar" jobs because that's the occupations that we're "supposed" to have. Making inroads into typically male dominated fields is difficult (cultural norms, glass ceilings, stereotyping, less pay for the same work...).

If you are in college, consider taking a Women's Studies course. If you want to do a little reading, go to the link below!

Answer 3

What makes you think that many women do not take up technical studies ?
A lot do take it up but have to give it up because of marriage, where either the husband or in-laws make them give it up.