Who works in Mechanical Engineering?
Mechanical engineering has been and continues to be a white, male dominated field. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2025, 88.8% of mechanical engineers were male and 84.0% were white, with only 2.4% being African American, 11.5% Asian, and 10.9% Hispanic or Latino (“Employed People by Detailed Occupation, Sex, Race, and Hispanic or Latino Ethnicity”). A 2011 report detailed why women were leaving engineering, citing working conditions, lack of advancement, low salary (shown in Figure 7), workplace climate and culture to be among the most influencing factors (Fouad & Romila). Despite enacting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) plans in universities, the workforce has not shown noticeable increases in
employment of these marginalized groups in mechanical engineering (Cheng et al., McClain et al. 1620). This stems from several different factors including systemic issues of racism and sexism, engineering work culture, early education options, and perceptions of engineering jobs. Women have even been found to rate themselves as being less competent in math ability than men despite both groups scoring the same on performance measures (“From Engineering School to Careers: An Examination of Occupational Intentions of Mechanical Engineering Students” 179). Studies also show that women and people of color are more likely to intend to use their engineering skills to contribute meaningfully to social and environmental needs, which is often not prioritized in engineering curriculums, leading to these groups being less likely to engage with the course content (qtd. in McClain et al. 1619).
Fig. 7 Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce analysis of data from the American Community Survey (ACS), 2015–2019.
Note: Restricted to prime-age adults (25–54) with positive earnings.
Fig. 8 Diversity in the Workplace by Kamlesh Ranjan “5 Core Values of Diversity in the Workplace You Didn’t Know About.”
BarRaiser, 2025, www.barraiser.com/blogs/core-value-of-diversity-in-the-workplace
Words without citation: 321
Why is diversity important?
There are many benefits to diversity in the workplace, not the least of which is the opportunity to offer a safe and welcoming environment for underrepresented groups. Diversity has been seen to have positive effects on learning outcomes, with encouragement of contact between students of different racial, social, and economic backgrounds being linked to increased benefit to education, social development, and practical abilities (Strayhorn et al.). As the National Science Foundation points out, diversity leads to further innovation through the intermingling of different cultural beliefs, life experiences, and worldviews (Grieco et al.). These are only some of the reasons why it is unfortunate that mechanical engineering does not have similar representation as the wider U.S. workforce, and why it is incredibly important to encourage and advocate for these marginalized groups.