2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Medical, veterinarian and dentistry graduate schools in Canada achieved gender equity in their graduating classes during the 1990s; however the proportion of women graduating from Canadian graduate engineering programs in 2022 was only 27%. This paper examines graduation trends from Canadian graduate engineering programs over 2000-2019 focusing on gendered differences in graduation rates. It also examines students’ and faculty’s experiences at two large graduate engineering schools and discusses how women's experiences differed from men's.

Findings indicated the proportion of women graduates from these programs increased only three percentage points over 20 years, and the proportion of women was consistent across domestic, international, full-time and part-time cohorts. During interviews, women discussed discrimination, problems reconciling parental and professional roles, being ignored or tokenized. All women students enjoyed their studies but had experienced or witnessed sexism and/or racism within their graduate programs which diminished their sense of belonging to their program and profession. Both women and men described instances of colleagues ridiculing or resisting EDI initiatives.

Suchman’s model of institutional legitimacy and Bourdieu's theories on social reproduction were used to analyze and frame results. Recommendations included increasing the visibility of senior leadership on EDI initiatives and addressing the existence of internal systemic problems.