A study of barriers to women's engineering education

The Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) is a male dominated environment, and for the majority of female cadets who are enrolled in engineering programmes the college represent a doubly non-traditional environment. Interviews were conducted with the majority of female cadets enrolled in engineering programmes at the college. The female cadets who have succeeded in reaching the third and fourth year of the engineering programmes have indicated that problems with systemic harassment are most severe in the first year of college life. It is apparent that the presence of systemic harassment creates barriers to women entering engineering in the military. This paper attempts to determine the most significant of these barriers and suggests ways in which these barriers may be dismantled. It is believed that the experiences at RMC are similar to those at other military colleges in other countries, and that some of the lessons learned at RMC can be applied to other engineering schools, where women are entering non-traditional fields.