How Women Are Reshaping the Engineering Profession

A look at what five years of intern data may reveal about the future of engineering – and what firms need to do to keep pace.

Our 2026 intern class is already settling in, and as I began organizing community events for this year’s group, I noticed something that  sent me down a bit of a rabbit hole: We have more women than men. Curious whether that was a pattern or a fluke, I started pulling numbers from previous years.

Since 2022, we’ve welcomed 115 interns, of whom 60 (52.2%) are women: 

• 2022 – 35% (6/17)
• 2023 – 42% (10/24)
• 2024 – 63% (19/30)
• 2025 – 60% (12/20)
• 2026 – 54% (13/24)

We’ve known that the number of women engineering students has been rising, and our hiring, though unintentional, reflects what intern classes have looked like over the last few years.

The age-old public conception is that engineering is a male-oriented profession. While it’s true that men currently make up a larger share of the field, women have made up an ever-larger share of graduates for many years now. Our recent intern numbers do not fit neatly into the idea of who makes up the engineering profession. It speaks to the ongoing shifts in the industry that so many qualified applicants are young women preparing to enter it.

What’s the history behind this workforce shift? 

The earliest data I found came from the National Center for Education Statistics, which shows that of the 1949-1950 graduating class, 0.3% of engineering bachelor’s degree recipients were female.¹ I know correlation is not causation, but it is worth noting that the Society of Women Engineers was founded in 1950.

In their “Fast Facts 2025” Report, SWE noted:

“In 2023, the share of bachelor’s degrees awarded to women averaged 29% across the globe. … In the United States, 24% of bachelor’s degrees in engineering and engineering technology were awarded to women in 2022.

“By discipline, civil engineering had the highest number of women employed in 2023, yet women represented only 17% of working civil engineers. Across the top engineering disciplines, the gender earnings gap has been closing. In 2023, women’s salaries ranged from 88% to 96% of men’s salaries.”

I believe SWE has been quietly achieving one of its stated goals:

“Advocacy: SWE will advocate for the inclusion and success of women, both present and prospective, in engineering and technology.”

The engineering field has also changed who is visible, with many more women in the industry to look up to.

Patricia Galloway became the first female president of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2004. Upon her passing, ASCE 2023 President Maria Lehman reflected: “She was a great mentor to me. She didn’t break through the glass ceiling – she exploded it.” ²

Closer to home, Carrie Johnson, a shareholder and Chair of Wallace’s board of directors, was named to the 2021 Oklahoma State University’s College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology’s Hall of Fame, and awarded a lifetime achievement award in 2025 by the National Council of Structural Engineers Association. That recognition speaks to a career built not just on technical excellence, but on giving back. Through her involvement with the Tulsa Girls Art School and other outreach programs, she has almost certainly inspired more than one young woman to pursue their passion for STEM, showing them not just what’s possible, but who is possible in this field.

And yet, challenges remain. The 2025 Issue 3 of PE Magazine, the National Society of Professional Engineers, stated:

“We have proven we can bring women into the profession. The share of engineering degrees earned by women grew from 17% to 23% in a decade. But when only 30% are still there twenty years later, we have built a revolving door.” ³

The challenge ahead is not only how we continue to bring women into engineering, but also how we structure the profession to keep them for the long haul.

And yet, I’m hopeful.

I grew up in a time when we were taught that women were capable of doing anything. There were no professions that were off limits. I remember this being most famously taught in the “Anything you can do, I can do better” Gatorade commercials with Michael Jordan and Mia Hamm. That mindset was shaped not only by what we were taught, but by the women who came before us and made it possible.

I saw this dynamic play out firsthand when I signed my daughter and me up for a structural engineering lesson at Tulsa’s Discovery Lab for “Introduce a Girl to Engineering” week. Two female structural engineers from Wallace led the session. I think it is the first time she considered the profession possible because we saw professional women standing in front of a class, leading with confidence.

After a fun session learning about seismicity, my daughter asked if she, too, could be an engineer one day.

If our intern data is any indication, the answer is yes. Progress takes time. But an intern pipeline averaging over 50% women across multiple years? That’s not an anomaly – it’s a leading indicator.  And if that trajectory continues, it raises a bigger question for the industry: are firms prepared for what a changing workforce may require?

Recruitment and retention strategies in engineering have historically been shaped around a predominantly male workforce. But as more women enter the profession, firms may need to rethink long-standing assumptions around mentorship, flexibility, leadership development, caregiving responsibilities and what career growth looks like over time. Attracting talent is one challenge. Building environments where that talent wants to stay is another.

I don’t pretend to have all the answers. But I do know that progress isn’t measured only by who enters the profession. It’s measured by whether they can envision a future there.

What I do know is that when I host our interns this summer, I will be seeing the future I want to see. Not because there are more women than men, but because it will mean we are finally becoming the industry we always claimed we wanted to be. One where talent matters more than gender – and where gender is no longer a barrier to being seen, considered or imagined in the first place. Where “engineer” doesn’t default to a mental image of a man in a white shirt with a pocket protector. Where young women considering their careers can see themselves in this field because they’ve seen women succeed in this field.

We’re not there yet. But we’re getting closer. And this summer’s intern class is proof of that.

I, for one, am here for it.

References

1. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2022, September). “Earned degrees conferred, 1949–50 and 1959–60 through 1969–70; Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS), ‘Degrees and other formal awards conferred’ surveys, 1970–71 through 1985–86; Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), ‘Completions Survey’ (IPEDS-C:87–99); and IPEDS Fall 2000 through Fall 2021, completions component.” https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d22/tables/dt22_325.45.asp
2. American Society of Civil Engineers. (2024, October 3). “Pat Galloway, a breaker of glass ceilings and ASCE’s first female president in 2004, dies at 67.” https://www.asce.org/publications-and-news/civil-engineering-source/article/2024/10/03/pat-galloway-a-breaker-of-glass-ceilings-and-asces-first-female-president-in-2004-dies-at-67
3. National Society of Professional Engineers. (Issue 3, 2025). “She Built the Future. Then She Left.” https://www.nspe.org/career-growth/pe-magazine/issue-3-2025/she-built-the-future-then-she-left