Work in progress : flexibility and career opportunity as motivation for women selecting industrial engineering majors

This work in progress explores qualitativelywhy women choose to major in industrial engineeringand remain there. Through two focus groups withundergraduate women industrial engineering majors atan historically black university and a predominantlywhite institution, we found these primary themes. 1)Students chose their institution for its reputation. 2)Students chose to major in industrial engineeringbecause they believed it a) was less technical and morelike business, b) had a wide range of job opportunitiesand c) offered the chance to work more with people. 3)Students remained in their major because of the caringand passionate faculty in their departments. Future workwill seek to confirm these findings at an additionalinstitution and explore in more depth the similarities anddifferences among institutions.