Retention Proven Practices

Discover solutions for retaining women in technology and science classes and careers.

Retention Collection - Retention Proven Practices

Voices of Young Women in Engineering

  • Five bright female engineering students reveal that they're "tired of fighting" to fit into male-dominated classes that often feel hostile. Learn about recommended support strategies when there are very few women.

Source:

Bennett, Dorothy, "Voices of Young Women in Engineering", Center for Children and Technology Reports (4) May 1996.

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Evergreen Valley College Increases Retention of both Female and Male Automotive Students by over 25%

  • Evergreen Valley College (EVC), one of eight CalWomenTech Project Sites, went from a 57.6% to 100% female completion rate in 6 months time with an aggregate rate of 88.3% over two years in the Project. Male retention rate also increased from 60.8% to 86.4% (a 25.6% increase).

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Las Positas College Increases Female Students in Welding and Automotive Technology from 5% to 14%; Retention Increases to 94%

  • Las Positas College, one of eight CalWomenTech Project Sites, increased their enrollment of female students in the trades through implementation of their recruitment strategic plan over two years and a variety of creative strategies ranging from free press coverage of their program on a local TV station (and showcasing the clip on their website) to a pink "Women in Technology RULE" emery board/ruler give-away.

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Women Increase from 18 to 30% of City College of San Francisco’s Computer Networking and Information Technology Program

  • In addition to implementing core recruitment strategies provided by the CalWomenTech project, City College of San Francisco's Computer Networking and Information Technology Program, one of eight project sites, incorporated custom recruitment strategies into their annual strategic plans, with a special focus on the college's counseling staff. What's more, adjustments to teaching styles -- based on IWITTS' retention training -- positively impacted completion rates of not only female students, but males as well.

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Women Now Nearly Half of San Diego Mesa Community College’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Program

  • San Diego Mesa Community College, one of eight CalWomenTech Project Sites, used the CalWomenTech Project's core recruitment strategies along with a special focus on women students during their annual GIS day to significantly increase the number of women in their GIS program. Plus, GIS instructors modified their teaching style based on the WomenTech Training they received on retention, resulting in 100% retention of female and male students for several semesters.

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