The Extraordinary Women Engineers Project (EWEP) is a national project to encourage girls to consider pursuing engineering. This study used focus groups and online surveys to gauge high school girls level of interest in engineering and awareness of engineering careers, as well as exploring the current and potential messaging used to increase enrollment with this demographic. They discovered that high school girls don’t feel that engineering is “for them” and perceive engineering as a “man’s profession”. They note that girls want their jobs to be rewarding; girls want to enjoy their jobs, have a good working environment, make a difference, have a good salary and career flexibility. Their findings on influencers echo ours – career influencers too often aren’t aware of how to guide girls towards engineering. Rather than attracting girls to “the challenge” of engineering, we need to connect engineering with the aforementioned elements that are important to teens.
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