On the first day of classes every semester, biomedical engineering sophomore Ashlyn Denny walks into a room in which she is one of very few women.
“I’m still intimidated walking into my differential equations class, and I don’t see a lot of women, and it’s hard because sometimes I really want a woman professor, and I don’t have that,” Denny said.
The number of women in the Cockrell School of Engineering increased each year from 2017 to 2024. However, in the two years since, the gap has widened again. Since 2024, the number of women in the Cockrell School of Engineering has declined 5.97% as of 2026, according to University data.
“It would be amazing to see that gap closed,” Denny said. “I hope that this next generation can work on that, but unfortunately, I think we are still probably at least a decade or two away from that.”
This year, there are 2,528 women in the Cockrell School of Engineering, compared to 5,625 men. Women make up 30.9% of students, compared to 32.1% in 2024. In 2017, women made up 26.2% of the Cockrell School population.
On the national level, women hold about 15.4% of occupations in engineering, according to a 2024 report by the U.S. Census Bureau. However, the percentage of women in engineering fields has seen a steady increase over the past three decades, according to the Society of Women Engineers.
Environmental engineering sophomore Holly Anderson said during a recent summer internship, she was one of less than 10 girls on a construction site and experienced “overt misogyny” from the men she worked with.
“It was really hard being in that environment because I enjoyed the work so much,” Anderson said. “It was actually really difficult and really frustrating.”
Anderson said she has experienced a lot of support from other women in STEM, and that the gender gap in the Cockrell school has not been a major factor she has noticed.
In the Cockrell school, 87 women make up 22.8% of faculty, compared to 295 men. Cockrell faculty makes up about 9.87% of all faculty across UT. This year in the School of Nursing, women make up 88.1% of students, the largest gender gap across the schools, according to University data on student demographics.
“There’s a lot of support from other women in STEM supporting each other, just because we know how the struggle is,” Anderson said. “I feel like there is this big push for women to stay in engineering, and stay in STEM and to pursue these careers, but I feel like until men start also advocating for that and making space for women instead of pushing us out, the gap can never truly close.”
Stella Chancellor, a civil engineering junior, said she also noticed the industry had a lot more men, particularly in higher-up positions. However, in one of her internships, she had a more even team, where women took project manager positions.
“It was honestly nice to see on that team, there were more women project managers and stuff like that,” Chancellor said. “I think in (the) industry, it’s a lot more evident that there’s more men than women. … But I haven’t really had any negative experiences in the workforce.”
