Alaska needs more women engineers to help it move forward

When we opened our real and virtual doors to the Introduction to Engineering class at the University of Alaska Fairbanks' College of Engineering and Mines this semester, we noticed something promising for Alaska: 30% of that class is composed of women. That’s a big deal. Nationally, the proportion of women in undergraduate engineering programs hovers just above 20%, and at UAF, the historical average has been slightly less than 20%. The bump to 30% women we observed in our first-year intro class — roughly 50% higher than average — could be a promising indicator of things to come.

Alaska faces significant challenges over the years ahead, and it is the engineers across industry sectors who will meet those challenges with new solutions. Engineers will design the infrastructure appropriate for adapting to Alaska’s changing climate; engineers will devise advanced techniques for developing our natural resources while safeguarding our lands and waters; engineers will bring the latest technologies to bear on issues and challenges across Alaska’s far-reaching communities. Indeed, it will be engineers who lead the way to Alaska’s future. And one day soon, half of those leading engineers will be women.

Alaska needs more women engineers because its future requires innovation for long-term growth. Study after study illustrates that complex, creative and multi-sector endeavors such as engineering design are enhanced when they are conducted by diverse teams. For example, in a 2018 analysis of 1,700 companies, the Boston Consulting Group found a significant 19% innovation return to diversity. In other words, companies with diverse leadership teams generated 45% of their revenues from recently created products and services, versus only 26% in non-diverse companies. Additionally, McKinsey & Company’s multi-year data from over 1,000 companies illustrates the clear link between gender diversity, enterprise profitability, and long-term value creation. In 2019, McKinsey noted that companies with highly gender-diverse executive teams are 25% more likely to generate above-average profitability than their non-diverse peers. Diverse teams go hand-in-hand with adaptive problem-solving, higher industry profits, and innovation, all of which present opportunities for Alaska.

It’s our responsibility at UAF to ensure that all students who enter the College of Engineering and Mines have the mentorship, community, growth opportunities, and the technical coursework to succeed within the University and onward in their careers. It’s especially important for us to provide the tools for success to our women engineering students, and our retention rates suggest that we’re on the right track. Once they enter UAF, the graduation rates of our engineering students are roughly equal by gender. However, we need your help to inspire more women to walk through the door.

Thirty percent women in a first-year engineering course is an exciting start and well above the national average, but our aim is 50% of the engineering college. Please help us continue this momentum toward a diverse, highly-skilled student body and engineering workforce prepared to design, build, and operate a brighter future. Alaska will reap immense benefits by training a higher proportion of women engineers, and those engineers will find challenging, creative, well-compensated, and purposeful careers. Please join us to invite your sisters, daughters, friends, and mothers to consider careers in engineering — Alaska needs and deserves their talents.

Bill Schnabel, Ph.D., P.E., serves as Dean of the UAF College of Engineering and Mines.

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