As students and faculty alike agree, if Queen’s continues to and empower female engineers, it sets a promising precedent for the future of diversity and inclusion in the field.
In a field dominated by men and impaired by doubt, Katherine Arenas-Collao MASc ’25, embarked on both an undergraduate and graduate mining degree ready to defy expectations and shatter stereotypes.
Fueled by unwavering determination, she set out to prove women can thrive in the toughest industries—an effort Arenas-Collao believes is ed by the University, which is making strides to tighten the gender gap at the Smith School of Engineering.
Queen’s prides itself in exceeding the national average of women enroled in engineering for over 80 years. As of 2024, Queen’s has the goal to “increase both the number of women pursuing engineering and the retention of existing women in the field.”
“Nowadays, the number of women in engineering is still far from 50 percent, but it has almost tripled since I started,” Arenas-Collao said in a statement to The Journal.
“When I first started my bachelor’s degree, it was quite difficult because there weren’t many women in mining and I often received discouraging comments, such as there being no facilities available for me at mine sites, that men would be mean, [and] I would not be able to get a job,” Arenas-Collao said.
Arenas-Collao, both a master’s student and teaching assistant (TA), never listened to those comments—she wanted to be tough enough to deal with a “boys club” and was intent on proving to those who told her “not to do it” they were wrong.
In 2023, 27 percent of all students enroled at the Smith School of Engineering were women while women make up 20 per cent of the faculty.
In addressing the low levels of faculty comprised of women, Arenas-Collao explained how the lack of female representation in educational roles inherently impacts the experiences of female students and further contributes to the gender gap.
“In 2018, I heard from women engineering students who had never had the experience of being taught by a woman faculty member. The problems with that scenario are all our students are missing the opportunity of learning engineering material from professors with different perspectives; and our women students did not have an opportunity to experience professor role models that look more like them,” Ploeg said.
“The challenges women and men face in engineering are quite different, so these have a whole new perspective depending on gender. Often, men are not exposed to the scrutiny of their peers to the same extent and experience sexual harassment at a much lower rate than women do in their workplaces,” Arenas-Collao said
“From my point of view, Queen’s has been overall ive, and I have never received any discouraging comments. On the contrary, my [woman] advisor, Anne Johnson, PhD in Mining Engineering, has encouraged me to achieve big things,” she added. “With her , I’ve received many awards as an emerging researcher, [and] been able to participate in and contribute to important mining conferences.”
Arenas-Collao mentioned how she’s been able to contribute to advancing women’s inclusion in the mining industry through her master’s thesis and independent research projects.
“She [Arenas-Collao’s advisor] has been, indeed, an invaluable guidance on my career,” Arenas-Collao said.
Ploeg discussed the impact of low female representation among engineering faculty .
“We know from research studies that women benefit most from mentorship when the mentor is a woman,” Ploeg said.
“Of the national average of female enrolment in engineering, I do not feel that I have any less of a chance to succeed,” said Rachel Hamburg Sci ’26, in a statement to The Journal. “I always feel very ed and respected by my peers and professors.”
“Although women only make up 27 per cent of the national average of female enrolment in engineering, I do not feel that I have any less of a chance to succeed,” said Rachel Hamburg Sci ’26, in a statement to The Journal. “I always feel very ed and respected by my peers and professors.”
The Smith School of Engineering claims “there are many resources [for] ing girls and women in engineering. These resources aim to advance and empower women and girls in unique ways including social activities, financial assistance, and professional development.”
“The Smith Engineering Chair for Women Engineering program, ed by many Smith Engineering teams, offers several initiatives over the year,” Ploeg said.
Ploeg said these initiatives include “hosting high profile women academics on campus to present their work in a public lecture and meet with students and faculty in an informal setting.”
More detailed information on initiatives directed by Dr. Heidi Ploeg can be found on the Smith School of Engineering’s resources page.
Queen’s hosts many student bodies that directly focus on addressing the gender gap present in engineering, such as Queen’s Women in Engineering and Science (WiSE), Women in Engineering (WiE), RoboGals, and Queen’s Women in Applied Science and Engineering (Q-WASE), and Queen’s Women in Automotive and Motorsport (QWiA)
Hamburg said these clubs “provide exceptional resources and career opportunities for female engineering students.”
Ploeg discussed how her role as chair directly allows her to work closely with these student groups.
“We may help with funding small grants or providing speakers or judges to their events. They also our outreach events by providing us with volunteers,” she said.
In fostering greater and positive change in the gender gap, Ploeg said she’s ing women faculty and students through “the platform and funding associated with the Smith Engineering Chair for Women in Engineering—a great first step and is already making a great difference.”
According to Ploeg, faculty are well-ed within Smith Engineering, including areas pertaining to recruitment, corporate relations, outreach, student teams and clubs. However, to be able to establish a Centre for Women in Engineering and be one of the leaders, more resources and space are necessary.
“The Centre for Women in Engineering could exist in different forms, but to give one example, it could exist as a few rooms [including a] reception area, common space, and some smaller study and meeting spaces, ed by a full-time staff member and student hourlies,” Ploeg said.
Hamburg finds herself satisfied with how Queen’s s its female engineering students, specifically in relation to design classes.
“There’s a focus on creating designs that are for all body types. This is because many designs in the past have been designed by men, for men. Now that there is a growing amount of females in engineering, the curriculum has shifted and now it is encouraged to think of engineering solutions that are beneficial to everyone. I think this helps the role that female engineers can play in engineering design in the future,” Hamburg said.
Ploeg highlighted the idea of diversifying experiences and perspectives in mechanical and material engineering through her research as director of Queen’s Bone and t Biomechanics research lab.
As a woman, Ploeg is “very aware” women’s needs in product research and development have been historically not considered.
“In collaboration with Trek Bicycle Corporation, I had the opportunity to lead a research and development project to create bicycle saddles addressing the needs of both men and women cyclists. This collaboration resulted in several scientific publications with sex specific data that had never been published before, and a including saddles in different sizes and a sizing system that could be used in local bicycle shops,” she added.
Arenas-Collao discussed what efforts the University could make to be more ive of their women engineering faculty and students.
“To students, Smith Engineering could consider implementing a program for ‘female leaders’ to nurture girls who have leadership skills and consider implementing spots exclusively for females,” Aneras-Collao said.
These leadership programs are a common practice in engineering schools in Aneras-Collao’s home country, Chile, to increase the enrolment rates of women in engineering.
Ploeg would like to see the Smith Engineering Chair for Women in Engineering program grow to include a physical centre for women in engineering, which would be a welcoming place to meet, study, conduct research, hold events, and share resources.
“For faculty , I believe it’s important to highlight the achievements of female staff within the department and prioritize females for positions of power, such as headships, chair positions, [etc.],” Arenas-Collao said.
“As long as they [Queen’s] keep advancing in addressing the gap, they should be proud of their efforts. For me, this means we are creating a welcoming environment for women, which is why they prefer to enrol in the Queen’s engineering faculty,” Arenas-Collao said.
Ploeg believes that Queen’s should absolutely be proud in exceeding the national average of female enrolment but is hesitant in full .
“My expectation is for us [Smith Engineering] to achieve parity as other programs have,” Ploeg said. She noted Queen’s Law and School of Medicine are good examples of successfully addressing this gap.
“The prestige of a university is shaped by its graduates and students. If Queen’s graduates consider it to be a good place for women, with ive mentors—such as Anne Johnson—that perception will undoubtedly spread to prospective applicants,” Arenas-Collao said.
“Although it was difficult to be a woman in an exclusively engineering university, it shaped me to be more persistent in defending our rights and, furthermore, it encouraged me to drive change,” Arenas-Collao said, shedding light for the next generation of women engineering students at Queen’s.
Ploeg said large impacts are being made in relation to the growing number of female faculty , noting 38 percent of all new hires for engineering Assistant Professors are women as of 2024.
“My focus is to increase and retain the number of engineering students who identify as women, but the outcome is a community and culture that s all students and fosters inclusivity and greater diversity,” Ploeg said.
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