Increasing the number of women in engineering at universities and colleges in Japan

Abstract

This paper reports on the results of a survey into the number of female engineering students, professors, and professional workers in Japan. The survey reveals that the relative proportion of females in the engineering field is remarkably low. Recent efforts to improve the situation are reviewed, but such attempts appear to be dismayingly half-hearted, and it is as of yet impossible to judge if these solutions will actually have any significant effect on increasing the number of women in the engineering field in Japan. © 2011 American Society for Engineering Education.