Historically, there are much fewer women deans in engineering than men. In 1984, Dr. Eleanor Baum, became the first women engineering dean in the U.S. In the last 20 years, the number of women engineering deans more than tripled and has grown from only a dozen in 2002. According to the American Society for Engineering Education Deans Council, from 2008 to 2019, the number of women engineering deans grew. However, since 2019, the numbers have fluctuated with a notable decrease from 2019 (93) to 2025 (75). As of 2025, there were 75 female engineering deans or directors across the country, representing roughly 21% of the total leaders of engineering colleges in the U.S. For more information and list of women deans throughout the years, visit the SWE Annual Literature Review Compendium on Women in Engineering. For a list of women deans in 2025, visit the Women Engineering Deans SWE article.
*Smaller engineering programs may have a chair or director rather than a dean.
Resources
- American Society for Engineering Education Deans Council
- Beach, M, Knaphus-Soran, E., Tanveer, M., Foxe, J., and Dott, P. 2025. Women Engineering and STEM: A Review of the 2024 Literature, Magazine of the Society of Women Engineers.
- McCabe, S. 2025. Women Engineering Deans in 2024, Magazine of the Society of Women Engineers.
