The role of engineers has changed. It used to be strictly a masculine field and over time it has been gaining more of a female presence. A simple example would be appliances that used to be designed by male mechanical engineers. Today we have better and improved designs because of the increased female involvement in engineering. To help foster more changes from strictly male environment to a more female inclusive environment, we need more female engineers.

The common misconception about engineering is that it is only for talented people or for students who get A’s in math and science in high school. It is also common to hear that boys tend to outperform girls in both topics but that is changing. Recent studies concluded that girls have roughly the same average scores as boys, but graduation rates for female engineers are still under 20%. Then, why not inspire girls to be engineers and fill the gap?

The objective of this session is to provide some examples of celebrities that were engineers or have some engineering background that made them successful and to suggest some strategies to help inspire girls to be engineers.