How the characteristics of undergraduate engineers can be used to design initiatives to attract future generations into engineering

The issue of women in engineering, or the relative lack thereof, has been a frequently discussed and reported topic for the past eighty years working groups, government groups and organisations have commented on the lack of women interested in engineering and how this should be addressed. During this time however, one aspect of females in engineering has been regularly overlooked, that engineering is not devoid of females, every year females take up places on engineering courses at university, representing, on average 14% of the undergraduate engineers. As such, perhaps the question to be asked is not why there are so few females in engineering but why, if it is so unattractive to females, are 14% of higher education engineering places taken by women? This research views the issue of females in engineering from this, more positive, stance. It aims to determine any similarities amongst the females who do choose to study engineering in order that these similarities, if any, may be exploited and used to inform initiatives aiming to increase the number of females following an engineering career path. [Continues.]