Recruiting and keeping women students and faculty in engineering: a case study of women at the University of Virginia, School of Engineering and Applied Science

The University of Virginia (USA) did not admit undergraduate women into its College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Science until 1970. Since that time the undergraduate engineering student body has grown to 26% female and the women faculty to 13.5% in 1998, and close to 15% in 1999; these are among the highest percentage rates in major engineering schools in the nation. Using the UVa Engineering School as case study, the paper points to successful strategies to draw women into engineering and also calls for further action to increase the presence of women in engineering to a more representational level.