Rowan program aims to groom girls as engineers

About 160 middle school girls brewed lip gloss, built bridges, and manipulated fiber optics last week - just like professional engineers.

For the 10th summer, Rowan University offered hands-on "Attracting Women Into Engineering" workshops aimed at dispelling stereotypes about the field and boosting the profession's female representation, which has stagnated nationally.

"We teach them it's not all about hard hats," said Kauser Jahan, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, who started the workshop in 1999 with 20 girls.

Unlike other fields of study, where men and women receive about an equal number of bachelor's degrees, just 18 percent of the nation's undergraduate engineering degrees went to women in 2007 - the smallest share since 1996, according to the American Society for Engineering Education.

That trend worries the industry and frustrates academics.

As baby boomers retire and technology evolves, demand for engineers will grow, said Doreen Nixon, director of systems engineering at Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems & Sensors in Moorestown.

"We're going to need more than males," she said.

Teachers continue to worry that girls' interest in science and math wanes in middle school, when "being smart" may become less fashionable, which is why so many workshops are designed for that age group. Drexel University, Widener University, and Lockheed Martin also offer programs for high school students.

But even girls committed to taking four years of science and math in high school courses "haven't gotten the message how they might apply them for careers," said Barbara Bogue, associate professor of engineering at Pennsylvania State University.

"You've got a bunch of kids who are enthusiastic and very capable," Bogue said. "You need environments that are welcoming and supportive."

In testimony to Congress last week about recruiting women into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, Bogue stressed raising teachers' expectations of girls; improving ways to evaluate existing programs, such as summer workshops; and recruiting female role models.

"Students see teachers or nurses as part of their daily lives, but they may only get to talk to an engineer at a special camp or workshop," said Jessica L. Snyder, a senior engineer in advanced materials at Dow Chemical Co. in Spring House.