Caltech's 2005 chemical engineering class makes a strong case against Harvard President Lawrence Summers' controversial hypothesis that men are innately more proficient in math and science.
The six-member class is made up entirely of women, a first in the Pasadena research university's history. Except for one graduate who wants to study law, all are planning to pursue doctorates in engineering.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday June 21, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 64 words Type of Material: Correction
Female engineers -- An article in Monday's California section about Caltech's all-female chemical engineering class stated that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) had spoken of writing to NASA shortly after the first moon walk in 1969 to ask how to become an astronaut. Clinton has said she wrote the letter around 1961, when President Kennedy was gearing up for the race to the moon.
About 35% of the 217 Caltech graduates awarded diplomas on June 10 were women, up from 25% in 1995. The 114-year-old university, among the world's most renowned science and technology institutes, began admitting women in 1970.
"For a long time, engineering was very much male-dominated," said Rick Flagan, chairman of Caltech's chemical engineering program. "We've reached the point where you can have a class that's all women."
Interest in math- and science-related majors among women is on the rise at universities across the country. They earned 58% of the undergraduate degrees in life sciences, such as biology and chemistry, 47% in math and 40% in physical sciences, according to 2000 figures, the latest available from the National Science Foundation.
Those percentages have continued to increase in the last five years, says Jong-On Hahm, director of the National Research Council's Committee on Women in Science and Engineering.
The uptick is largely attributed to Title IX, the 1972 law that bars discrimination against women in academic, athletic and professional programs that receive federal funding, Hahm said.
For example, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has spoken of writing as a child to NASA asking how she could become an astronaut after watching the first men walk on the moon, only to be told the program didn't accept women.
Despite much progress, engineering still appeals to fewer women than other math and science fields. Just 19% of undergraduates earning engineering degrees in 2000 were women.
Revising Caltech's curriculum is credited with helping to raise enrollment of both sexes in the chemical engineering program. Next year's class includes seven women among 16 seniors.
Department faculty began updating the curriculum about five years ago to make it more relevant to the types of jobs graduates, particularly women, wanted to pursue.
The traditional academic track focused heavily on chemical processing. The new program has a broader reach that includes biochemistry, environmental engineering, aeronautics and semiconductor research.
