Women Students
The Athena Project
Athena is the Greek mythological goddess of wisdom, reason, and purity. She is also the goddess of battle. The students of WPI have selected Athena as the symbol for the collection of programs and services for women.
Currently, women make up 23% of the undergraduate students at WPI. You may feel like that number is more or less depending on your major, however, since women are not evenly distributed in academic majors, as shown in the table at right.
Right now, these percentages are roughly the same as our peer institutions. However, we are working hard at increasing these numbers! We're also working hard to support the needs of the women who are here.
The Athena Project offers a number of programs including the Women's Industry Network and the Girls' Night Out series. Please visit the programs page for more information on Athena Project services. These programs and more are guided by the Athena Project Steering Committee. For information on upcoming events please visit the What's Happening page.
| Majors | # of Women 2004-05 | % of Women 2004-05 | # of Women 2003-04 | % of Women 2003-04 | % of Women 2002-03 | % of Women Nationally 2003 | % of Women Nationally 2002 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aerospace Engineering | 12 | 19% | 16% | ||||
| Biochemistry/Biological | 48 | 63% | 36 | 57% | 51% | ||
| Biotechnology | 138 | 67% | 135 | 64% | 69% | 39% | |
| Biomedical Engineering | 86 | 49% | 74 | 51% | 51% | 41% |
|
| Chemistry | 19 | 40% | 15 | 44% | 38% | ||
| Chemical Engineering | 41 | 33% | 35 | 34% | 32% | 34% | 36% |
| Civil Engineering | 71 | 31% | 55 | 28% | 27% | 21% | 21% |
| Computer Science | 31 | 8% | 39 | 9% | 8% | 16% | |
| Electrical & Computer Engineering | 37 | 9% | 44 | 9% | 9% | 15% | 14% |
| Econ/Soc, Tech, Political | 3 | 38% | 6 | 55% | 50% | ||
| Humanities & Arts | 3 | 30% | 4 | 31% | 18% | ||
| Industrial Engineering | 14 | 41% | 11 | 38% | 37% | 30% | |
| Interdisciplinary | 6 | 67% | 4 | 36% | 43% | ||
| Management | 16 | 13% | 24 | 16% | 19% | 25% | |
| Math | 13 | 20% | 23 | 31% | 32% | ||
| Mechanical Engineering | 88 | 16% | 106 | 18% | 18% | 12% | |
| Manufacturing Engineering | 1 | 4% | 4 | 17% | 20% | 17% | 23% |
| Physics | 13 | 20% | 13 | 26% | 15% | ||
| Undeclared/ED | 17 | 25% | 8 | 14% | 22% | 24% | 19% |
| Undeclared/SC | 2 | 67% | |||||
| Undeclared | 3 | 10% | 1 | 0% | 24% |
Last modified: June 06, 2007 15:17:55