SWE advocacy strives to make the UCLA School of Engineering a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive environment for all woman-identifying engineering students so that they may achieve their full career potential as engineers and leaders. We stand by the fact that the lack of gender diversity in undergraduate engineering programs (and as a result, in the engineering industry) isn’t a result of women being innately less interested or somehow not as well-suited for this work. Instead, the lack of diversity in engineering is the fault of systems, institutions, and structures as well as the social and cultural atmospheres that result from them.

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This year, in order to advocate for institutional change, we will urge faculty and staff to employ evidence-based practices related to admissions and academics to increase the pipeline and retention rates for woman-identifying students at UCLA. Additionally, with the goal of changing the culture around gender diversity within the engineering student body, we’re establishing 3-5 year-long partnerships with student-run UCLA engineering organizations including IEEE and Bruin Racing to increase their gender diversity and inclusion. Finally, we cannot serve the needs of all women without addressing the needs of those that are also BIPOC, particularly those belonging to starkly underrepresented racial minorities in the UCLA School of Engineering, so we’re aiming to promote intersectional diversity through quarterly socials with the UCLA Tri-Org (NSBE, SOLES, and AISES).