Why aren't more girls choosing engineering?

A three-year University of Auckland study has shed new light on why fewer women choose engineering, revealing how barriers and influences encountered throughout high school can erode early interest in the field.

The longitudinal study followed 50 female students from Year 11 through to university enrolment, tracking what encouraged some to pursue engineering and what led others away.

Led by Women in Engineering project manager Ashleigh Fox, the research offers a rare insight into the years between a student's first exposure to engineering and their eventual study choices.  

All 50 students had attended Women in Engineering holiday camps, launched in 2019 to engage 16 to 18-year-old female students in engineering.

The three-day camps offer hands-on activities while introducing students to women working and studying in the field.

The camps had a clear short-term impact: half the participants reported a better understanding of engineering, greater awareness of their eligibility to pursue it at university, and stronger social networks with students and staff in the Faculty of Engineering and Design.

A 2023 questionnaire found the proportion who said they were definitely considering engineering increased from 12 percent before the camp to 36 percent afterwards.

But the longer-term study, with initial results published in 2024, found that interest alone was often not enough to sustain a pathway into engineering.

By the time participants reached the point of applying to university, around 80 percent had chosen other fields of study, leaving only a handful enrolling in Engineering at the University of Auckland.

Fox says a range of factors contributed to the drop-off, including university entry requirements and decisions made at school.  

"We have one of the highest guaranteed entry score requirements for engineering in New Zealand. Girls look at that ‘guaranteed entry’ and go, ‘I need to have that rank score, I need to have those credits, if I don’t have that, I can’t do it’," she says.

"They think if they’re anything less than excellent, it’s not for them. But they often don’t realise there are alternative pathways."

The research also showed that one positive experience is rarely enough to sustain interest over several years.

"One of the really big things that came out of the longitudinal study is you can’t just do one big ‘wow’ thing one year and expect them to keep it in mind and come to university years later," says Fox.

"You have to have continued engagement reinforcing the positive emotions that they experienced in that one big moment, and you have to do it over and over again, because it’s really easy to have one negative experience that turns you away."

The three-year study also allowed Women in Engineering to follow up with students who did not go on to engineering.

"It helps us see at what point in their journey did they get turned off, what happened, when did it happen and who did it," says Fox.

The findings have helped shape how Women in Engineering approaches that longer journey: on International Women's Day 2026, they launched the Women in Engineering Academy, giving students a way to stay connected with the group throughout high school.

More than 800 girls have signed up, with the Academy able to keep track of students’ year levels and participation in events, while parents and teachers can stay connected through emails, events and resources. 

The research team is now examining the question from the other direction: what helps women choose engineering in the first place?

A second study, led by Fox with co-investigators Dr James Tizard and Kate Greenslade, is surveying and interviewing first-year women studying engineering at the University of Auckland, to learn what got them over the line.

While the research is still underway, early findings interviewing 127 participants suggest women who chose engineering were more likely to have strong role models in their lives, including STEM teachers and family members who were engineers.

Participants also largely did not report experiencing gender stereotyping at school.

"Role-modelling can play an important role," says Greenslade.

"Physics is often taught by male teachers in groups where the gender mix in the classroom is heavily male, while female physics teachers are often only in female-only schools. The resonance with the person that’s teaching you can be quite tricky," she says.

The findings are consistent with research by Associate Professor Tanya Evans, which found girls from single-sex schools had stronger pathways into engineering and computer science at university than their co-educational counterparts.

The research has also highlighted challenges around awareness and understanding of engineering as a career.

Unlike subjects such as chemistry, biology or physics, there is no school subject called engineering, making it harder for students to draw a clear connection between what they learn at school and an engineering degree.

"It can be difficult to see a path. There’s also so many options in the field of engineering," says Greenslade.

"We know bright, able women are out there, but they’re just not choosing to come to engineering, and the big question is why." 

Together, the two studies are helping Women in Engineering understand what happens between a girl's first interest in engineering and her eventual choice of university degree.

"We wanted to see what factors are contributing to the enrolment data that we see, to address our faculty goal of increasing the number of women studying Engineering at the University of Auckland," says Fox.

The 2026 study is part of the wider faculty project supported by funding from Vector Limited and Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, with doctoral candidates Shuting Liu, Binh Tran and Jenny Vu serving as research assistants.