Keys to the Engineering Gateway: Using Creative Technology to Retain Women and Underrepresented Students
By Sue V. Rosser, dean of the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts and professor of public policy and of history, technology, and society at the Georgia Institute of Technology
In recent years, the media have focused significant attention on the gender imbalance of students in higher education. Newspaper headlines and television spotlights leave the impression that women’s numbers have surpassed men’s in all areas of college, with articles that underline “firsts” and highlight achievements of star women scientists reinforcing the impression that equity has been reached. Indeed, women have made great strides in higher education at large, where they now represent the majority of students in many disciplines, even in some of the sciences. But this coverage often tells only a partial story.

Opening the World of Women in Engineering through Mentoring and Service
By Margaret Bailey, Kate Gleason Endowed Chair and associate professor, mechanical engineering; Margaret Anderson, assistant dean for student services; Elizabeth DeBartolo, associate professor, mechanical engineering; Marca Lam, instructional faculty, mechanical engineering; and Jacqueline Mozrall, department head and professor, industrial and systems engineering—all in the Kate Gleason College of Engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology
At the Kate Gleason College of Engineering (KGCOE) at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), the only engineering college in the United States named in honor of a woman, young women are excited about engineering. Like Kate Gleason herself, who began her studies at the age of eleven through on-the-job training at her father’s machine tool manufacturing shop, these students are energetically pursuing their interests. Gleason (1865-1933), a native of Rochester, New York, whose parents were close friends of Susan B. Anthony, celebrated many firsts during her lifetime, including becoming the first female engineer elected to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the first female president of a national bank in the United States. Decades after her death, her legacy remains alive in the school that bears her name.