Like many other women, I knew going into engineering that I was entering a field generally dominated by men, and thus it was not surprising that throughout my undergraduate academic career, I have never once had a female professor, or even teaching assistant (TA), for any of my electrical engineering classes. While EE is not one of NYU Shanghai’s most populous majors, the gender skew is still visible; in the Class of 2017 itself, there are only two female electrical engineers (including myself) compared to 5 male students. And while I have always been aware of the need for female empowerment in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, the greatest lesson I learned while studying abroad at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering (NYU Tandon) is how to tackle this issue the right way. While several schools at NYU offer STEM-related majors, the merger of the Polytechnic University in Brooklyn at NYU to form NYU Tandon created NYU’s only School of Engineering (SoE). The arrival of this new school has shed light on the gender gap in such areas of study. The NYU SoE strives to support women in STEM fields and increase their representation and success and offers a wide range of programs and events throughout the year in an effort to create a more supportive environment. The school provides several resources to prospective students, such as the Tandon-WEST event which gives prospective students the opportunity to network with and hear from NYU women in STEM fields; the summer festival West Fest, which allows prospective students to meet other admitted students as well as get introduced to SoE clubs such as STEMinist, Society of Women Engineers, and Women in Search of Excellence; and various Google Hangouts with the Office of Enrollment Management to ask questions about being a woman in STEM at NYU. Females in the college have access to further clubs, organization, and events where they can network with other women in STEM and share their experiences. The events also provide students with the opportunity to get involved with gender empowerment efforts and learn more about how they can contribute. Previous events have included the “Women in STEM Summit 2016”, which brought together some of the most influential thinkers in STEM to speak on and discuss the issue of gender equality in science and tech-related fields. The school also provides the WoMentorship program and the Women in Engineering exploration community in the Othmer Residence Hall in Brooklyn. At the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, women currently comprise more than a quarter of the undergraduate and graduate student population, and one in five faculty members are women; NYU’s SoE has previously ranked #4 in the STEMinist schools list. While there is still room for improvement in specific areas, NYU Tandon has successfully managed to keep the issue of female empowerment in STEM fields in the limelight, and perhaps that is why, every year, there are more women joining the incoming class. This article was written by Lathika Chandra Mouli. Please send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: Twitter