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TABLE IIH-3
PARTICIPATION IN SELECTED ENGINEERING-RELATED ACTIVITIES BY
GENDER AND UNIVERSITY
(University of Washington, Rowan)
(%’s)
University University of Washington Rowan University
Gender Total Male Female Total Male Female
Activity
% Having any contact with a 62.0 60.0 64.2 80.5 80.1 82.1
mentor a
% Having any involvement with
study groups
75.8 72.8 77.9 89.3 88.3 92.5
% Having any involvement in
professional societies or
engineering-related activities b
62.5 62.9 62.7 63.6 60.9 74.6
(n) (132) (62) (68) (331) (263) (68)
a
At Rowan, the question read: “During this academic year, have there been any
particular faculty who encouraged you or were personally supportive of you?”
b
At Rowan, the question was about participation in professional society only (as other
engineering-related activities were covered in many separate questions).
These comparisons show that compared to women in other engineering programs,
Rowan women in engineering are well integrated into both enrichment and help
activities, and that their involvement often exceeds that of the male students at Rowan, a
pattern unlike that found at the University of Washington.
COMPARISONS OF SATISFACTION
Comparing the satisfaction of Rowan engineering students to that of students
elsewhere gives us a perspective on general satisfaction with the Rowan program as well
as the relative satisfaction of the female students in it. Some of the questions used in the
Rowan survey, are the same as questions that appeared and have been reported for the
national WEPAN study of 29 institutions, with over 8000 students. On these questions
the most striking difference is that nationally women are less satisfied than men; at
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