<p>I've read that MIT is aiming to increase the number of women majoring in EECS. Can anyone give me a rough estimate of the percentage of EECS and Math majors who are women? Are some majors more popular with women than others?</p>
<p>don't think i have a number, but women are rather underrepresented in eecs, given that it's a third of the undergraduate student body. a recent tech article says ~75% of course 6 is male, frinstance. on the other hand, i know a lot of girls in course 6, tho many are alums/grad students now. don't really know about math, although among my acquaintance are more male than female math majors. you'll hear, sometimes, that 6, 8, and 18 (and 2, as it's historically right behind 6 in popularity with guys) are "macho" majors, and 7, 9, and possibly 10 (i'd add 3, from my own experience, and 4, 21, and other hass-ish majors are also susceptible to this) are "girly" majors, tho whether they mean it is, in fact, predominated by people of that sex, or are being derogatory about its perceived hardcoreness, is up to the speaker. i don't hear these things myself, except when friends of mine discuss this issue explicitly, usually from being put down by obnoxious ignorant asshats b/c of their choice of major, but my experience is primarily that of a girl in one of the aforementioned guy majors, so i'm a bit skewed.</p>
<p>um, sorry i don't have better answers for you, except what's come of many, many discussions about this. the</a> registrar's office has numbers about the # of women by major, but i don't have time to do the math. good job on timing; i'm feeling activist today, and like i said, this is a touchy subject.</p>
<p>goddess32585, thanks so much for the link. Exactly what I was looking for. If anyone else is interested, the percentages for women majors are:</p>
<p>EECS (6): 24% (166 of 684)
Math (18): 31% (50 of 162)</p>
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usually from being put down by obnoxious ignorant asshats b/c of their choice of major
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<p>I have a great deal of hatred for this sort of thing, being a girl in two female-heavy majors. It irritates me to no end that these ignorant asshats assume I'm 7 and 9 because I'm stupid rather than because I'm obsessed with biology. It's so tacky.</p>
<p>MIT is definitely trying to increase female enrollment in course 6: it sponsors the Women's Technology Program, for rising senior girls, which includes intensive introductions to computer science, electrical engineering, and discrete mathematics, fascinating lunch lectures on current research in robotics, artificial intelligence, prosthetics, etc., an electric motor-building project, and lots more. If you are female and have any interest in EECS, you should apply... you don't have to have any previous programming/wiring experience! :)</p>
<p>I second everything mommybird says about WTP. I was a TA for the first summer it existed, and was friends with the guy who started the program as his Master of Engineering thesis project. It's a great program, and if you know any girls who will be high school juniors next year please encourage them to apply. (It's too late to apply for this summer; next summer's apps will be up in November.)</p>
<p>It's especially geared toward those who find math/science interesting but are doubtful about going into the field of EECS due to their lack of experience or because they are put off by it being so male-dominated. The program is not designed for those who are already hardcore EECS types.</p>
<p><a href="http://wtp.mit.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://wtp.mit.edu/</a></p>
<p>By the end of the program, some girls found they were really into EE but not CS, or vice versa. Some were really fascinated with both. And a few discoved neither was their cup of tea. But I can confidently say that all of them loved the experience, and even if they chose to never pursue EECS, they were certainly more confident about their abilities and less likely to view EECS as "a guy thing."</p>
<p>Thanks for all the info on WTP. I will encourage my D to apply next year. She's very interested in math and science but has shown little interest in EECS even though both of her parents have CS degrees. It sounds like WTP would be a great experience even if she decides to major in something else.</p>