Promoting the Participation of Women in STEM: A Methodological View

Abstract

The low participation of women in engineering fields is a common problem worldwide. As a result, universities are starting to create plans to attract more female students. However, there are no documented methodologies to guide institutions in this process. Hence, this chapter describes a method to attract more women to STEM programs, using one Latin American university as a case study. The procedure starts by establishing a baseline of the student population, using specific metrics to determine possible biases in admissions or graduations. The results show a small number of registered female students; thus, the method suggests different strategies to improve this situation. The next step is proposing activities to empower young girls to study engineering, describing indicators developed to evaluate the effectiveness of the activities. The case study includes participation from elementary, middle, and high school students. Results show that girls and boys participated in the proposed activities, and they maintained or improved their motivation to study a STEM program.