Milwaukee, WI, USA. Women who leave engineering jobs after obtaining the necessary degree are significantly more likely to leave the field because of an uncomfortable work climate than because of family reasons.

Nearly half of women in the survey who left an engineering career indicated they did so because of negative working conditions, too much travel, lack of advancement or low salary, the study shows.


The study says that despite successful interventions to increase the numbers of women earning degrees in engineering, the field now faces the problem of retaining those female engineers. The researchers received input in the form of an online survey on the topic from more than 3,700 women with degrees from 230 universities.

First systematic study of the engineering field's retention of women

"Some women are leaving because of family issues, but that's not the majority of women who responded to our survey."

• Nadya Fouad, Distinguished Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM).

• Co-author Romila Singh, UWM associate professor of business.The respondents fall into four groups:

• those who are currently working as engineers,
  
  
• those who got their degree but never entered the field,
  
  
• those who left the profession more than five years ago, and
  
  
• those who left less than five years ago.

The respondents listed their reason for leaving, with about half listing more than one.

• Findings show one in three respondents left engineering because they did not like the workplace climate, their boss or the culture.
  
  
• One in four left engineering to spend more time with family.

Other key findings include:

• One-third of the women in the survey who did not enter engineering after graduating said it was because of their perceptions of the field as being inflexible, or the workplace culture as being non-supportive of women.
  
  
• Women's decisions to stay in engineering are best predicted by a combination of psychological factors and factors related to the organizational climate.
  
  
• Women's decisions to stay in engineering can be influenced by key supporters in the organization, such as supervisors and co-workers.
  
  
• Being given opportunities for training and development was a key factor that influenced current engineers' career and job satisfaction.
  
  
• Women in the survey who wanted to leave their companies were also very likely eventually to leave the field of engineering altogether.
  
  
• Women who graduated with an engineering degree but who did not enter the field are using the knowledge and skills gained in their education in a number of other fields.

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