Retention strategies for engineering women students: what worked for graduate career change women

Abstract

For over ten years, a highly successful graduate career change program at Arizona State University (USA) has been used to recruit and to graduate women with a Master's degree in industrial engineering. The students selected for this program are either unemployed or under employed in a technical area. This paper gives the results of the evaluation of the career change program and of activities that were helpful in retaining the career change women, The results of both surveys are helpful in defining retention strategies for both undergraduate and graduate women students. The peer group support given to the career change women was of particular value. This paper suggests that this type of support could be duplicated by peer undergraduate and graduate groups of women within departments. The results of the latter survey also point out the most difficult areas for women graduate students as well as suggestions on how the experience could be improved.