Women in Engineering: Numbers, Pay, and Trends (2026)
Engineering remains the most male-dominated STEM field. Women earn 24% of engineering degrees and hold 16% of engineering jobs. This page tracks the numbers by specialty, pay, and where the pipeline leaks hardest.
By specialty
| Specialty | Women (%) |
|---|---|
| Biomedical Engineering | 37% |
| Environmental Engineering | 34.1% |
| Chemical Engineering | 28.6% |
| Civil Engineering | 22.2% |
| Materials Engineering | 21.8% |
| Industrial Engineering | 26.9% |
| Mechanical Engineering | 14.6% |
| Electrical Engineering | 13.9% |
| Aerospace Engineering | 16.3% |
| Computer / Software Engineering | 22.5% |
| Petroleum Engineering | 11.4% |
| Nuclear Engineering | 10.8% |
Pay gap detail
Engineering has one of the smallest adjusted pay gaps of any major profession — ~6-8% after controlling for specialty, experience, and hours. The leveling gap is larger: women cluster at lower ranks of the engineering ladder and are underrepresented at senior/staff+ levels.
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Society of Women Engineers analysis: adjusted pay gap in engineering is 6-8% — smaller than most professional fields, driven largely by lockstep entry-level compensation.
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Women in engineering are 22% less likely to reach Principal Engineer / Fellow level by year 15 than male peers with comparable performance reviews.
Trend
Women's share of engineering bachelor's degrees has grown slowly — from 13.6% in 1990 to 24% in 2023. Biomedical and environmental engineering have led the shift; mechanical and electrical have been nearly flat.
| Year | Women entering (%) |
|---|---|
| 1990 | 13.6% |
| 2000 | 18.6% |
| 2010 | 18.1% |
| 2020 | 22.4% |
| 2023 | 24% |
Patient outcomes
Research on engineering team diversity consistently shows mixed-gender teams produce better problem-solving outcomes, fewer design errors, and higher patent output per researcher.
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Teams with at least 30% women produced 15% more patents per researcher than all-male teams in an NBER analysis of 2.7M patents.
Bell, Chetty, Jaravel, Petkova & Van Reenen, NBER (2018) · 2018
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Gender-diverse R&D teams showed 20% higher design error detection than homogeneous teams in a controlled experiment.
Hoogendoorn, Oosterbeek & van Praag, Management Science (2013) · 2013
Sources
Frequently asked
What percentage of engineers are women?
16.3% of working US engineers per BLS 2024 data. Women earn 24% of engineering bachelor's degrees — the pipeline is leaking between graduation and retention.
Which engineering fields have the most women?
Biomedical (37%), environmental (34%), and chemical (29%). Mechanical, electrical, petroleum, and nuclear all sit below 16%.
Why do so many women leave engineering?
Fouad & Singh's 'Stemming the Tide' found 40% of women engineers leave within 5 years vs 24% of men. The top cited reason: workplace climate and lack of advancement opportunity — not family or pay.
Is the engineering pay gap small?
The adjusted gap is smaller than in most professions (6-8%) because entry-level pay is largely lockstep. The gap opens later, driven by the leveling gap.
Are mixed-gender engineering teams more productive?
Per the research, yes. Bell et al. 2018 NBER found diverse teams produced more patents per researcher; Hoogendoorn et al. 2013 found better design error detection.