Reframing Failure and Building Support: Pathways to Retaining Women in Engineering

The underrepresentation of women in engineering remains a persistent challenge for institutions of higher education and professional engineering societies.Despite national efforts to increase diversity in STEM fields, women continue to leave engineering pathways at higher rates than their male peers.According to the American Association of University Women (AAUW), several factors contribute to this phenomenon, including persistent societal bias, limited access to mentorship, and the learning environment of STEM classrooms.Understanding how these factors interact across different stages of an engineering career is essential for designing interventions that promote retention and long-term success.To investigate the role of mentorship and classroom gender composition in shaping perseverance among women in engineering, the authors conducted a survey targeting individuals at various stages of their academic and professional journeys.Participants included women who had majored or attempted to major in engineering, regardless of whether they completed a degree, entered the workforce, or became professional engineers.This approach provided a broader perspective on experiences that influence persistence, including those of individuals who ultimately chose not to remain in the field.Analyses of the survey data reveal three consistent themes.First, mentorship proved to be a critical factor in persistence, though its form evolved over time.Early in a student's education, mentorship was primarily valued for its emotional support rather than technical expertise.In contrast, women reported that once they entered the workplace, mentorship increasingly took on a technical dimension, shaping professional growth and advancement.Second, respondents frequently described an absence of systemic or institutional support.Instead, they relied heavily on the efforts of individual mentors, highlighting a gap in structural resources within both academic and professional settings.Third, experiences with failure (whether in the form of poor grades or unsuccessful projects) emerged as a pivotal influence on perseverance.Women who were able to reframe failure as a learning opportunity, rather than as evidence of personal inadequacy, demonstrated greater persistence in pursuing engineering.This finding suggests that perseverance is more strongly linked to mindset and resilience than to innate ability.Based on these results, the authors argue for targeted interventions at earlier stages of education to ensure equitable access to mentorship opportunities for all genders.Additionally, the authors recommend that institutions and educators work to redefine failure in the context of engineering education, positioning it as an essential and constructive component of the learning process.By addressing these factors, institutions can better support the development of resilient, confident engineers and contribute to narrowing the gender gap in the profession.