Bioengineering at CU Anschutz Celebrates its First Female Dominant Cohort

This is the first cohort at CU Denver in the College of Engineering, Design, and Computing where women were the majority. While in recent years there has been an increase in the number of women who have entered the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) field, women are still notably underrepresented. Women make up about half of the workforce, as of 2019, 27% of those women make up STEM workers¹. While this is a 19% increase since 1970, there is still a long way to go until women are fully represented. Significant gains were made social sciences and life & physical sciences; however, limited increases were seen in the field of computer and engineering. As of 2019, women represented only 15% of the workforce in engineering. To enhance the field of STEM more representation is needed within the workforce. This will lead to a broad spectrum of questions that reach farther than what is currently being asked. CU is working on promoting mentorship, discussions, and awareness focused on women in STEM. There are numerous student-led organizations whose missions are to educate, encourage and cultivate diversity in STEM such as Women in STEM, the Society of Women Engineers, the BioEngineering Empowerment Program, and many more.