Factors Influencing Women's Underrepresentation in Engineering: A Literature Review at EDUCON

In the context of women's integration into the working domain, the gradual reduction of the gender gap across numerous professional fields continues to be a reality. However, it is imperative to underline that the attainment of full gender equity across professional domains, including engineering, remains an unfulfilled objective. This document is aimed at presenting a general view of the gaps regarding women in engineering through a literature revision of the works included in the proceedings of IEEE EDUCON, to identify the factors that may still underlie the low representation of females in engineering and provide guidance to this conference stakeholders for upcoming studies and publications on this topic. The results indicate that factors such as entry and affordability hurdles, inadequate training and built-in prejudices, along with prevalent sociocultural norms, constrain greater diversity and inclusiveness of females in engineering majors. As such taking action now aiming to eliminate the gender gap by reversing these trends may result in the desired outcome. It may also provide new sources of global economic growth and support the implementation and achievement of sustainable development and inclusive growth. Finally, the literature review highlights the importance of going beyond the diagnostic phase while identifying lines of work to be strengthened.