The Daily’s columnist Elaine Godfrey makes a strong case women are not encouraged toward careers in science, technology, engineering and math in the same way that men are encouraged. By comparing girls’ and boys’ toys (listed separately on the Toys R Us Web site), she argues that spatial learning (i.e., STEM-directed) exercises are designed with boys in mind, while domestic and family-care skills are emphasized for girls. To show the academic consequences of that bias, Godfrey quotes 2012/2013 enrollment statistics for three departments in Iowa State’s College of Engineering. In civil, electrical and mechanical engineering, women students comprised between nine and 18 percent of the total enrollment.

While those numbers are indeed disappointing, the same measures for chemical and biological engineering (34 percent women), industrial engineering (30 percent), and materials science and engineering (21 percent) are quite a bit better. The latter numbers reflect spring 2013 enrollments.

Chemical engineering benefits from a perceived proximity to chemistry, a field that has always had significant female participation. But even beyond that perception, the discipline as a whole has made a sustained effort to recruit and retain women students. An outstanding example of that took place at Montana State University, where as early as the 1970s the late professor Lloyd Berg was a “vocal advocate for students, constantly recruiting, counseling and tracking down scholarships. He encouraged women especially to enter chemical engineering, and his department set national records for numbers of women receiving chemical engineering degrees.”

Chemical engineering at Iowa State has graduated a significant number of women into careers in industry, government and academia. As an example, Gayle Roberts — now CEO of Stanley Consultants in Muscatine, Iowa — received her Bachelor of Science degree in 1981 and now oversees one of the world’s largest engineering consulting organizations.

Ann Wymore (B.S. in chemical engineering, 2011) works in research and development for Kraft Foods and now travels and inspects Kraft installations in several countries. Her management has praised her for outstanding communication and leadership skills. In a letter dated Jan. 14, 2012, Wymore wrote: “I would like to extend a ‘thank-you’ for the level of rigor and focus on writing reports by the Iowa State chemical engineering department.”

Meredith Gibson, a chemical engineer who graduated just eight months ago, took a position with Exxon-Mobil and has now moved to the company’s New Jersey Research Institute where she is developing lubricants for wind turbines.

There are many other success stories for women in chemical engineering, as well as in the other engineering and scientific fields at Iowa State. ISU student organizations, such as the Society of Women Engineers and the Program for Women in Science and Engineering, offer support and encouragement to their members as they navigate the difficult (but rewarding) paths toward their degrees. As Godfrey points out, men remain in the majority in the science and engineering disciplines, but the situation has changed greatly during the past 50 years, and as more young women see future rewards in the same light as they have seen difficulties in the past, the balance will improve even more.