Hopkins has come a long way since it first opened its doors to female undergraduates in 1970. Today, Hopkins boasts a nearly equal male-female undergraduate ratio. In fact, there are 275 more female than male undergrads in the School of Arts and Sciences.
The Bloomberg School of Public Health, which has more than double the number of women compared to men, and the School of Nursing, which has an enormous majority of females, continue this trend.
Despite these closing gender gaps, the School of Engineering still has twice as many male as female students.
"My mechanical engineering class only has five or six girls. It would be nice to see more girls in engineering and technology, but I don't really mind. It shows that maybe girls are intimidated in being in a field that is so male-dominated," said freshman Rocky Barilla, a mechanical engineering major.
The G.W.C. Whiting School of Engineering has 937 full-time male undergraduates, compared to 431 full-time female undergraduates. There are 432 full-time male graduate students and just 171 full-time female graduate students. The total number of men in the Whiting School of Engineering is 1,399 while the total number of women is 605. "Right now, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, we are about one-third female, and two-thirds male," said Nick Jones, dean of the School of Engineering.
The national average in engineering is about one-fifth female, according to Jones.
"Our school is doing remarkably well in the recruitment and retention of female students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels," Jones said.
"We're very happy about that number, we're very proud of it. I think the number has improved in recent years and continues to improve. We are committed to seeing it continue to improve. I'm not sure 50 percent is a quantitative goal we aspire to. I could see us in a few years being 40 percent female."
Jones explained the School of Engineering has increased the representation of faculty substantially in the last three years.
Kristina Johnson, a female engineer appointed provost this year, now occupies Hopkins's second-most important leadership position.
"I'm sure Dr. Johnson will help us in our quest to promote even higher levels of equity in the genders and create a more diverse student body. As a school, we are really making remarkable progress and we're doing really well in comparison to competitors internationally but there is certainly more we can be doing," Jones said.
Most male engineering students do not seem to mind that their classes have mostly male students, and most agree that there are no significant barriers to women who are interested. The interest, however, may be what is crucially lacking.
"Hopkins has always been predominantly male-driven, but there has been an increase of women wanting to come here because there has been an increase in awareness in programs which are really interesting, such as French and Writing Seminars." said Cuong Nguyen, a male freshman majoring in philosophy.
"A lot of people think language study draws more females," said Deborah Mifflin, a professor of German.
"I have the same amount of males as females in my advanced group. I actually think it is very balanced. Even in our graduate program it's very balanced. I see it as a healthy mix," she said.
This year, majors that attract significantly more males than females include: economics (137 male, 22 female), physics (34 male, 12 female), and political science (71 male, 27 female).
Majors declared by more women than men include: History of Art (24 female, 5 male), Psychological and Brain Sciences (101 female, 50 male), public health (189 female, 82 male), and Writing Seminars (69 female, 20 male).
"I don't think this says anything about either gender," said David Rezzo, a freshman chemical and biological engineering major.
" Some areas of studies just tend to generate interests from some personalities more so than others. I think it is safe to say that there are distinct traits of a male personality and a female personality."
In the Krieger School of Arts there are 1,742 full-time female undergraduates, compared to 1,451 full-time male undergraduates.
At the graduate level, the picture is a bit different, with 548 full-time male graduate students compared to 448 full-time female graduate students. Taken as a whole, the School of Arts and Sciences has 2,217 female students and 2,036 male students. This number includes both full and part-time undergraduates, post-baccalaureates and graduates.
"In college in general, there are more high-quality female applicants applying," said Katherine Stingl, a freshman behavioral biology major.
The University administration has worked on creating a diverse academic environment inclusive to all walks of life.
They have taken great strides, as seen in the dramatic transformation of the student body since 1970, and undoubtedly will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
